Request to leave fixed term lease early

Fol20

Hi Guys

My question is from a landlords point of view.

What exactly is the point of a fixed term lease.. To me its meant to be there so that both parties involved sign a lease to say that both will meet their obligations and it will remain in place usually for a period of 1 year.

If for example i have rent of 1k per month and I use a company to find a tenant and they take the first month of 1k to find a tenant.. Then in month 2, the tenant requests to reassign the lease, am i forced to say yes or can i go back to them and deduct the costs of hiring the company again to find a new tenant.

L1011

If you refuse a suitable reassignment, the tenant can leave without consequence - you can't reclaim any re-let costs.

davindub

Fol20 wrote: »

Hi Guys

My question is from a landlords point of view.

What exactly is the point of a fixed term lease.. To me its meant to be there so that both parties involved sign a lease to say that both will meet their obligations and it will remain in place usually for a period of 1 year.

If for example i have rent of 1k per month and I use a company to find a tenant and they take the first month of 1k to find a tenant.. Then in month 2, the tenant requests to reassign the lease, am i forced to say yes or can i go back to them and deduct the costs of hiring the company again to find a new tenant.

No the tenant would not have part 4 rights until month 7.

But you need to be mindful, its not an open excuse to deduct unreasonable letting fees either from the deposit.

I.e. receipt of standard fee from letting agent deducted from deposit = probably ok

Deduction for your own time = probably not ok

As for fixed term leases in Part 4, from a LL's point of view they are of little benefit. A benefit of part 4 is the ability of the tenant to terminate without any reason with the appropriate notice.

Hence renewing a fixed term lease annually places more restrictions on the LL than the tenant, you might be able to argue that since a part 4 is in place you can use section 34 to terminate a lease but its not a certain thing either.

Victor

Fol20 wrote: »

Then in month 2, the tenant requests to reassign the lease, am i forced to say yes or can i go back to them and deduct the costs of hiring the company again to find a new tenant.

Note that the term is to "assign the lease".

It is for the tenant to provide you with a suitable replacement, you shouldn't have to pay the estate agent again. In stipulating a suitable replacement, the same criteria that applied to the original tenant should apply.

Fol20

The tenant doesnt care who they get as long as they can get someone.. If they are under part 4, am i able to hire an agency to do due diligence with the new tenant?

Likewise lets say they find someone that isnt working,has no money and isnt suitable as tenant. Do i have a right to decline the tenant until they find a suitable tenant or the minute i decline a tenant, they are entitled to get their money back.. Like how i found them, am i able to use an agency to locate tenants and deduct from their deposit where necessary even under part 4 if its withing the fixed term agreement.

Fol20

Victor wrote: »

Note that the term is to "assign the lease".

It is for the tenant to provide you with a suitable replacement, you shouldn't have to pay the estate agent again. In stipulating a suitable replacement, the same criteria that applied to the original tenant should apply.

Its up to a tenant to find the tenant but it should be up to me to perform due diligence if i paid someone in the past.. I should be entitled to perform same step again.

4ensic15

Fol20 wrote: »

Its up to a tenant to find the tenant but it should be up to me to perform due diligence if i paid someone in the past.. I should be entitled to perform same step again.

No. the tenant can propose < mod edit> anyone as a tenant and if you refuse, the tenant can terminate the tenancy. You can't keep the deposit or any of it for re-letting expenses. Welcome to planet RTB.