Leaving lease early?

rolexeagle1

Hey guys,

had a look through my lease there and it does not state the process for leaving my tenancy early. I am 7 months into a 12 month lease and want to move out end of January.

How do I go about informing landlord/agency, and will this affect my deposit? Or will I be able to recover all of my deposit if I give the correct notice that I intend to leave at the end of January and what would that notice be.

Any help really appreciated. Thanks

djimi

You need to assign the remainder of your lease to another party. Have a look on this forum for further details; there are currently a couple of threads on the first page that already outline the process.

leeomurchu

You'll be kissing your deposit goodbye I'm afraid. Your LL may take a nice approach if you manage to find someone to finish out the term of your lease but he isn't required to return your deposit either way.

You signed a 12 month contract which means you've agreed to 12 monthly installments(rent) on the property whether you're there or not. The LL will usually retain a deposit if a lease is ended early he also has the option to recoup the outstanding balance on the contract if he so wishes although this rarely happens although I'd be willing to bet it will become more common place.

If I were you I'd be expecting to lose my deposit and move on to your new place without any issues.

djimi

leeomurchu wrote: »

You'll be kissing your deposit goodbye I'm afraid. Your LL may take a nice approach if you manage to find someone to finish out the term of your lease but he isn't required to return your deposit either way.

If you approach the landlord about reassigning the lease then you can leave legally and expect to get your deposit returned (less deductions).

leeomurchu

djimi wrote: »

If you approach the landlord about reassigning the lease then you can leave legally and expect to get your deposit returned (less deductions).

Not sure about that one as the lease has been signed by the op and therefore he'd be liable to costs. The LL may not be willing to accept alternative tennant for numerous reasons, bad reference etc.

djimi

leeomurchu wrote: »

Not sure about that one as the lease has been signed by the op and therefore he'd be liable to costs. The LL may not be willing to accept alternative tennant for numerous reasons, bad reference etc.

The landlord does not have to agree to a specific tenant, but they must agree to the idea of reassigning the lease. It's up to the current leaseholder to find the new tenant and to cover all costs involved.

leeomurchu

djimi wrote: »

The landlord does not have to agree to a specific tenant, but they must agree to the idea of reassigning the lease. It's up to the current leaseholder to find the new tenant and to cover all costs involved.

Ah yeah i'm just saying that if a LL wants to prove difficult there's no reason to think he couldn't drag out assessing tenants for the last 4 months and leaving the tenant liable for the rent during that period. I was pointing out that losing his deposit might well be the easiest solution.

There might be a limit on refusal by the LL of replacement tenants though I don't know of such a stipulation but it may well exist.

djimi

leeomurchu wrote: »

Ah yeah i'm just saying that if a LL wants to prove difficult there's no reason to think he couldn't drag out assessing tenants for the last 4 months and leaving the tenant liable for the rent during that period. I was pointing out that losing his deposit might well be the easiest solution.

There might be a limit on refusal by the LL of replacement tenants though I don't know of such a stipulation but it may well exist.

I see what you are saying. I dont know how it works in practice; its not something that I have ever had to do. I guess that a landlord could just keep refusing potential tenants, but were the leaseholder to take a case against the landlord then it would probably look bad on the landlord when they were asked to explain why they turned down so many perfectly suitable candidates. I dont know the legal ins and outs of it though.

I suppose in reality there is not much to gain for the landlord to refuse a reassignment. Chances are if they start playing silly buggers then the tenent will just up and leave and they place will remain vacant for a while. The deposit may or may not cover this. If they agree to a reassignment then they will not be out of pocket at any time, as the tenant will find the new tenant and would be paying in full until the new tenant moves in.

odds_on

When a tenant breaks a fixed term lease and does not find a new tenant for an assignment, the landlord is under an obligation to "mitigate any loss as quickly as possible".

If a ex-tenant brought a case to the PRTB, the landlord would be required to show that he has tried to find a new tenant. This would involve such things a proving that he was actively looking for a tenant via adverts and estate agents; the number of viewings he has had and if and why he refused to accept a prospective tenant.