Breaking Tenancy Agreement

Anihilator

Commercial leasing is entirely different to private leasing.

Its a fundamental of compensation that the losses need to be mitigated. If they arent the landlord would severely impact his case.

neilmcl

Taken from the Goverments shorthold tenancy guide to tenants published in 2009:

5.6 Can I leave during the tenancy?
If you have a fixed term tenancy but want to move out before the end of the
term, you can only do so if the landlord agrees you can leave early or if this is
allowed for by a “break clause” in the tenancy agreement and you have followed
any requirements for giving notice specified in the tenancy agreement. If the
agreement does not allow you to leave early and the landlord does not agree that
you can break the agreement, you will be contractually obliged to pay the rent for
the entire length of the fixed term. However, this does not mean that the landlord
should necessarily be able to claim for the whole term’s rent if you leave early:
there is also a responsibility on the landlord in this situation to try to cover his or
her losses in other ways, notably by trying to re-let the accommodation.
Your landlord should also not reasonably refuse an alternative tenant you have

suggested

N79

Anihilator wrote: »

Commercial leasing is entirely different to private leasing.

Its a fundamental of compensation that the losses need to be mitigated. If they arent the landlord would severely impact his case.

I quite agree. The issue here is whether the LL has to do anything before the end of the fixed period of the tenancy (ie whether the LL can do nothing towards find new tenants). Clearly the LL has a duty to consider all replacement Ts provided by the current T (and to not unreasonably reject them) and the LL has to behave in a manner to minimise the costs incurred by the Ts. What the Court of Appeal decided in the above case was that a LL did not have to actively market a property during the fixed period of a (commercial) tenancy. A subtle distinction but it places the onus squarely on the T.

It was a commercial tenancy but the judgement was considered within the general framework of leases as contracts and also within the framework of leases themselves. These general principles of English law would apply seem to apply to all leases, but of course we would need the court of appeal to settle that matter for sure.

I would also point out that once new Ts are found then the old T no longer has to pay rent.

Anihilator

I think the answer entirely depends on the landlords individual circumstances as said earlier.

I think they must make an attempt to readvertise the lease. The level of this attempt would depend on them.

A letting agent for example would be hard to justify not advertising it to death in paper ad's, their office, website etc.

An old dear renting a one off flat could probably get away with one ad in a paper.

Eitherway 5 months isnt long and the OP probably should budget to be paying the entire rent.