Breaking a lease?

Mrs W

A friend of mine has rented her house out, tenant signed a 12 month lease in August and gave notice last week that she's leaving next week. She paid 600 deposit.
My friend has had the house up on daft and called a few letting agents who told her she won't have much hope of letting it before Christmas.
Is she entitled to keep the deposit?

RangeR

What does the contract say about early termination?

oscillating wildely

Mrs W wrote: »

A friend of mine has rented her house out, tenant signed a 12 month lease in August and gave notice last week that she's leaving next week. She paid 600 deposit.
My friend has had the house up on daft and called a few letting agents who told her she won't have much hope of letting it before Christmas.
Is she entitled to keep the deposit?

A lease is a legal agreement so your friend is entitled to full payment until August 2014 although implementing this will be impossible.

Is there not a clause in the lease agreement stating that at least one months notice is required?

I would say that your friend has full entitlement to keep the deposit as effectively he/she will be out of pocket under the lease agreement as well as effectively having no rental income for the next 6/8 weeks.

Best thing would be to contact Threshold or one of those other agencies who specialise in this area

djimi

Your friend is entitled to keep the deposit to make up for lost rent, however she must move quickly to mitigate her loss (which by the sounds of it she has done). If she finds another tenant before the deposit is used up on lost rent (in other words if she finds a new tenant within a month) then she is supposed to return the remainder of the deposit to the tenant.

Mrs W

The lease says "this is a legally binding agreement, any breaks in its terms may result in the tenant losing their deposit or part thereof"
Even if the tenant gives the 28 days notice is the lease still broken as it was for 12 months?
She painted rooms in the colours the tenant wanted even though they were perfect and put in new carpet etc as the tenant said she intended staying for years so she's fairly annoyed now

djimi

Mrs W wrote: »

The lease says "this is a legally binding agreement, any breaks in its terms may result in the tenant losing their deposit or part thereof"
Even if the tenant gives the 28 days notice is the lease still broken as it was for 12 months?

It depends on whether or not the lease allows the tenant a break clause or not. There is no standard notice period when a fixed term lease is in effect; any notice periods only apply when the lease has expired.