Currently in flat share, need to leave, help!

lea

Hello

In April I started renting a 2 bed flat with a friend. I now need to move out for a number of reasons, and am wondering what the best way to do it is.

We signed a 6 month tenancy which ends the middle of next month. I have told my flat mate that I need to move out, and that will stay up until the end of October. She has spoken to the landlord who says she can stay if she can find someone to take my room and sign a new 6 month contract. She cannot afford it on her own (the rent is £775 a month!). Currently we pay £550 a month each into a joint account which the rent and all utilities are paid from. Having looked at a couple of flatmate websites, the most people seem to pay for this area is approx £400 a month. Which obviously leaves me in a tricky situation, I do not want to make my flat mate homeless by handing in my 1 month's notice (which I believe will terminate the joint tenancy) but at the same time I need to leave....
Also, she works from home and has the desk in the lounge, do you think this will impact on finding someone else??

Has anyone got any advice on where we could advertise to find a new joint tenant??

What is the best way to go about things? Help!!

Thanks
x

Engelbert

Is that £400 a month excluding bills, as surely that would be roughly equivelent to £550 with?

Your NTQ would terminate the joint tenancy, but I think you have to do what is best for you in this situation. If other flats are much cheaper your friend would be better off moving out and into a cheaper flat.

Also a desk in the joint living room would put me off rather, but I guess she needs to ask potential flatmates about that.

Jowo_2

Yes, your ending a joint tenancy agreement ends the agreement for all, and therefore the remaining tenant must negotiate with the landlord for a new agreement to stay on.

If you are saying that the rent for that 2 bed flat is higher than market rent, you've got the option of your renegotiating it lower if the landlord agrees or encouraging your friend to move into a house share herself or start up a new houseshare in a cheaper 2 bed.

Gumtree.com and spareroom.co.uk to find flat mates.

A living room is for relaxing.

anselld

This will sound harsh, but it isnt your problem; you need to leave, that is up to you.

Having said that, the landlord isn't exactly in a strong position either. If LL is getting £775 a month when most people are paying £400 then it is in the LL interest to help your flatmate stay on her own until a new flatmate can be found.

Alternatively if there are reasonable places going for significantly less, would it not be in your flatmate's interest to move anyway?

lea

Thanks for your replies.

The rent is £775 split between us both (£387.50 each) but we pay £550 which covers basically everything-electricity, water, tv licence, contents insurance, broadband, home phone (needed for intercom), sky + etc. I'm guessing a lot of places on these sites you just are renting the room which is why they're arround the £400 mark, whereas this is actually a flat share....?

Havent tried gumtree, we don't seem to have a local town on there thats very close, but worth a try anyway I'm sure. We have come across spareroom.co.uk and will try that now.

So basically do you think the best thing is to hand my 1 month's notice in at the end of this month, so I leave at end October? I feel bad about forcing my flat mate out of here but can't see any other option but advertise and hope for the best?
Landlord has said she needs to find someone to take my room or move out herself and we will put it back on the rental market (she cannot afford to stay here on her own)

Oooh what a sticky situation!

Thanks again, if anyone else has any advice or websites to try please post them.

anselld

I guess the other option is to wait until you have found someone before giving your notice. If the agreement is ending anyway it will automatically change to a periodic tenancy so you can give 1 month notice whenever you like. Just don't sign a new agreement.

If the LL doesnt like this her only option is to give notice herself.

Just depends how urgently you need to move out I guess.

PasturesNew

I think the OP has given plenty of notice to the flatmate and the LL. I think they should leave it at that and hand in formal written notice and be done with it so nobody argues any toss later.

Tough, but it's not like the OP is bailing out early or at especially short notice.

lea

Thanks again for your replies

I guess I wanna try my best to see if i can help her find someone else before I finally hand my notice in-but my situation doesnt enable me to stay indefinitely until she can.
Are there any more websites that we could advertise on?

Thanks again

BitterAndTwisted

I think if your flatmate wants to stay on after the current rental agreement ends then she is the one who needs to find a new flatmate. She would have had to have found somewhere else in any case if the LL wasn't willing to offer a new agreement.

lea

Hello

I have now made it clear to my flatmate i am moving out whether she finds someone else, or needs to move out and find somewhere else to live. I have told her I am handing official notice in to the landlord on 30th Sep, and if she can find a flatmate during the notice period then perhaps she could negotiate with landlord to stay, but either way I am leaving.

Am I right in thinking, as long as I have paid my share up to the end of October, I can move out at any time before then? Are there any implications of doing this? (apart from not getting my money's worth of course!)

Thanks again for your help.

Lea

poppysarah

Why doesn't she move into a room that's offered at a cheaper rent?