Awkward situation breaking lease

tomob666

Hi all,

Apologies for this, it might be a little long-winded!

I will be finishing up my job at the end of this month and so am no longer in a position to pay rent and so will be moving out. I contacted my landlord a number of weeks ago to let him now. I have lived in my current accommodation for a number of years with friends. My landlord told me that I should look into finding someone to take the room on Daft with my housemates.

I have advertised the room by myself and shown it to a number of people, I have given my housemates access to the advertisement so that they could see if any people look acceptable, or interview people themselves, however I know they have not looked at it. The room is quite small and so far only one person is interested. However, my friends are not happy with this person taking the room as their English is quite poor.

I am getting quite frustrated at this stage. I obviously don't want to fall out with friends but the situation is deteoriating. I feel my friends would contact the landlord to ask that this person is not given the room.

I'm unsure whether I'm asking for practical, legal or social advice, or a mix of all!

Happy Christmas!

beauf

Do you rent by the room, or the entire house? Who's name is on the contract/lease. If you have one.

tomob666

beauf wrote: »

Do you rent by the room, or the entire house? Who's name is on the contract/lease. If you have one.

The lease is in all 3 of our names

antoinolachtnai

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Things will be better in the New Year.

Is there a fixed period on the lease?

Mrs OBumble

tomob666 wrote: »

The lease is in all 3 of our names

Tell your housemates that if they don't like your suggestion, then they need to pull finger and find someone else to replace you - or to cover the extra rent themselves.

tomob666

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Things will be better in the New Year.

Is there a fixed period on the lease?

Thanks for your words of encouragement!

The lease is in place until midway through 2016 unfortunately.

tomob666

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Tell your housemates that if they don't like your suggestion, then they need to pull finger and find someone else to replace you - or to cover the extra rent themselves.

Thanks for this. I'm not sure technically what duty they have to help find someone to take the room but they are being of no help and would be more than happy for me to continue paying rent and not living there.

The situation is quite rotten

hdowney

Technically - ye are jointly liable for the rent. You are making good innings into finding someone to take over your portion. If they keep causing issues in the finding of a replacement tell them they'll end up having to split your portion amongst themselves

the_syco

tomob666 wrote: »

I obviously don't want to fall out with friends but the situation is deteoriating.

They seem to only want to continue to be your friend as long as it financially suits them?

zoobizoo

The landlord won't care who takes the room once they are paying and have references etc

Make sure that your housemates know this and they might get a bit motivated to sort it out.

chickenlicken2

Tough situation.

Practically I would suggest the following:
Speak to your housemates and advise that it has been difficult to find someone and you will need to ring the landlord to discuss practicalities
Explain that as you have no income you aren't in a position to cover the rent and it's important that you get someone ASAP.
Speak to your landlord and advise him it has been difficult to find someone. He might permit that if you forfeit your deposit and ask he accepts that for the following month then they have another month to find someone.

It is tough letting a smaller room. Some suggestions that might help
-lower the rent. If it's a city you could get someone staying mon night to thurs night. Unfortunately the others would have to cover the difference.
-is rent split equally ie if it's a 5 bed house is it 20% each or is it in specific amounts
-someone else moves from a bigger room to the smaller room and it might be easier to let the smaller room
-is there parking available or is someone else using an allocated space? If so, could that be reviewed.

Does the ad have photos? A lot of people filter by properties with photos.
Are you listing the room as only available for the period to the lease end? A lot of people filter by 6 months plus.

Actually also look at the section on daft for people looking for rooms. Sometimes you will find people who might be living at home and place an ad but don't actively look.

At this time of year it is hard to find someone but you depending where you are located Jan should be a lot better.

the_syco

chickenlicken2 wrote: »

At this time of year it is hard to find someone but you depending where you are located Jan should be a lot better.

Actually, because people hold off until the new year, you may get someone that needs out of their location, and will take anything.

tomob666

Thanks for the help!

The situation has been resolved, luckily before it got too volatile!

Thanks agin