Actual experiences of terminating fixed-term lease

Red Alert

I am interested to know if anyone here has "successfully" terminated a fixed term lease. More specifically, did you seek to assign the lease or were you able to terminate it by mutual agreement? And what happened to your deposit? I am fully aware of the contractual nature of a lease, but I am interested in actual "on the ground" experiences.

I'm currently about 6 months into a lease on a property that I didn't do enough research on, and is far from where I work, with dreadful broadband and a useless heating system. I took the place because I was in a hurry. Unfortunately I don't deal with the landlord directly, instead through an agent.

Ms Doubtfire1

Firstly, an adequate heating system is part of the rental standards.If it needs upgrading you need to contact your landlord with that request.There is a certain timeline within they have to fix that.Failing to do so will allow you to terminate pretty much immediate. That as a side line.
I terminated a fixed term lease 7 month early, but I came to a mutual agreement. Generally, if you try and terminate without mutual consent LL can take you to the cleaners.And the ones I had will certainly do so.

Red Alert

Just to follow up for anyone who might be wondering: the landlord agreed to terminate the lease 2 months early, wanting only a professional cleaning to be done. Fair enough.

One word of advice that I would do next time: if I'm not happy with somewhere I'll ask to reassign the lease much earlier.

TheDoc

I dropped out of a fixed term relatively near the end, so not the same sort of timeframes. But I discussed with my landlord and offered him a last payment of 5 weeks rent, the extra week to compensate for any difficulty it might put him in.

This was at the start of the crazyness, so he happily accepted and wasn't long getting new people in. Full deposit was returned, a good reference and the entire thing was a good experience.

I just helped a work colleague leave a fixed term lease a good few months early. She did the same offering five weeks as the final payment to cover any disruption, and she is also wrapping up there with her deposit being returned. Her situation was a bit more annoying as she was room sharing and the other people in the house were an absolute mess (one of whom was landlord) and really didn't deserve a penny, but it resulted in a no frills exit and a good ref to boot.

One of the pros I feel getting a place where you deal with a landlord as opposed an agency. I find agencies just faceless people (from first hand and second hand experiences) and fair enough they are being paid to manage a property to the letter. Any landlord I've dealt with directly have been decent, and they just want little-low hassle and someone to just treat the place like their own home.

system_538781

I ended a fixed term lease early after about 8 months and had my full deposit returned.

There was an overlap of about a month where rent was paid on my old apartment and also my new one. I was able to take my time with the move and also hand back the keys to the old apartment early.

I did ask the landlord for a reference before I informed him of my intention to break the lease, which he provided without hesitation.