Ending a tenancy mid-month - normal rules ?

Kev64 · 29 November 2008 at 8:15PM

Well, in our particular case, the LL is not likely to get any other tenants in as he is selling the place - which is the reason we are moving. We are tired of all the people coming round to view, and rather go now than when he finds a buyer and then we'd have 8 weeks to find somewhere and vacate.

dobbie82 · 29 November 2008 at 11:07PM

I left "mid month" or rather 3/4 through from my last place, and got a rebate of effectively a week back when I got my deposit returned.

If its a reputable company I would not worry too much

Kev64 · 30 November 2008 at 12:00AM

Well, they've always been fine with us - though we have never really had to put that to the test. We are friendly with all the staff, and they have been trying to find us another place on their books. It's just unfortunate that the place we have found is with another agent. We would have liked to have stayed with the existing agents.

I'm trying to make sure I do the right thing by both agents whilst minimising the stress for me. We don't really want to move at all. We like it where we are, we have settled in here - it's our home. However, we are being forced to find somewhere else, and I'm finding it all very stressful. I phoned the new agent this morning and asked if there was a chance we could move on the 17th/18th. They said they'd have to ask the landlord on Monday.
Monday morning we are driving to Gatwick to fly away for two weeks (planned & booked long before the new house appeared on the market), Having read the replies above, I now realise we ought to be moving on the weekend of the 11th/12th, as our last day of the next rent period will be the 15th. We haven't given any notice to our existing agent yet, as I only had the all-clear from the Homelet check on Friday afternoon. It's all coming to a head at exactly the wrong time. It looks like I may have to try to do all this via email on holiday - which I really don't need. I've even started smoking again !! :mad:

We're supposed to be going away to relax. I can see me sitting by the pool biting my nails to the quick and worrying 24/7 about this. My tinnitus is screaming away and I'm getting palpitations now.

franklee · 30 November 2008 at 4:11AM

As the agent has offered to refund any unused portion of that month afterwards then I would just thank them nicely and ask them to confirm it in writing now. Then you should get it back as they have offered it to you which they need not have done. I find this to a rent day business a right pain in trying to line the dates up and usually it means the next landlord has to wait a bit longer for the next tenant to arrive in my experience.

Kev64 · 30 November 2008 at 7:09AM

Having slept on it - I've just realised the solution is quite simple after all !! - Give our notice in tomorrow for a leaving date of 15.01 - they get more than a full month's notice and nobody has to mess around with refunds / partial rent etc. Tell the new agent we would like to move in on 11th instead of the 2nd. If they go with it, fine, if they don't, then we end up overlapping for two weeks, which would be more costly than I'd hoped, but I'll just have to take the hit. Job done ! It's funny how you can get yourself worked up to a point where you can't see the wood for the trees !