Ending tenancy 4 months into an 8 month contract

clearmydebts

Hi all,

I have also posted this in Landlordzone but there is more traffic in here.

I am in a bit of a predicament. We moved into our current rental flat in June. We were only allowed to get an 8 month contract and were under pressure to accept this flat due to the landlord selling the previous one and the rental market moving very quickly in Brighton.
Due to the recession my husband cannot get a job here and has been offered a job in Berkshire. He is accepting this job and we need to move at the beginning of November.

My question is, we will have paid 4 months rent up until the end of Nov, so will be liable for the other 4 months rent as well?, or is there always a break at 6 months? The contract said that we cannot break the end of the contract before the 8 months.

The other query I have is that we have friends who would be intrerested in taking over the lease from Nov to Feb 21st. Should I mention that to the lettting agency? Is that something they would let us do?
Thanks in advance for the replies.

Soot2006

You can only get out of the fixed period if you come to an amicable agreement with the LL; i.e. the LL agrees to let you go. The best thing to do is to be frank with the LL, explain your situation, accept your liability and see if you can come to an agreement with him re your friends taking over the tenancy.

clearmydebts

Soot2006 wrote: »

You can only get out of the fixed period if you come to an amicable agreement with the LL; i.e. the LL agrees to let you go. The best thing to do is to be frank with the LL, explain your situation, accept your liability and see if you can come to an agreement with him re your friends taking over the tenancy.

Thanks for replying so quickly Soot2006. Hopefully the agency and LL will allow us pass the lease over to our friends.

Does anyone have experience of this?

Geenie

The fact you have other people to take over and prevent a void may well appease your LL and LA to allow you to go. But I would imagine they will want to credit check and reference your friends before agreeing to any of this.

clearmydebts

That would be fine. Our friends are currently looking for a flat and would need to undergo credit checks anyway so that would be okay!

Jomo

If I was the LL and you could provide suitable references for your friends then I most likely would accept but if it is managed by an agency they may well be a bit more difficult about it and it may cost you some money for credit cheques etc. (that is IF they agree to your friends taking over).

clearmydebts

Hopefully the agency will be amenable to it. Have figured out that we have to leave 5 months in so if we have to pay 3 months rent then that is something we have to do.

Hopefully when we tell the agency that it is due to work reasons and we have friends lined up they will be reasonable.

Is it better to write a formal letter or ring the agency?

Jomo

Well I hope that is the case but there are probably a few agencies out there that would benefit more by not being at all accommodating to your needs...sad but true!

Although I do cross my fingers for you....

clearmydebts

Thanks Jomo. Hopefully it won't be the case but if we have to pay it we have to pay. We will be able to afford it but would rather pay off some debts with it and save for the baby that is due in Feb

Jomo

Good luck with it all!