Can I get out of my tenancy agreement? Dilemma.

GC81

Hi all,
We moved in January 2010 into a rented house, we've found out that my partners ex plans to leave their old home (of which he has been paying mortgage on) leaving the property empty by end of April. Our tenancy will be up for renewal in July, I know that to leave on that date we have to give 8wks (2months) notice.
Just wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to end contract earlier, not holding much hope to be honest, but worth asking.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Jowo_2

No, you have a legally binding contract but a sympathetic landlord may give their consent if you are prepared to pay any expenses associated with the early surrender (such as readvertising fees) and pay the void period until a new tenant can be found to take it over. Essentially, if you assure them that they won't suffer any loss and expose yourself to it, rather than them.

Also, while its fairly common for a fixed term AST to stipulate a notice period, in fact, there's no requirement in law for a tenant to do this (this is often disputed though) and its good manners for a tenant to convey their intentions to the landlord.

Again, my understanding is that if a tenant surrenders the property without the consent of the landlord (by returning the key early and giving notice when they are not entitled to), the landlord is supposed to demonstrate that they've tried to mitigate their losses by trying to let out the property rather than assume the tenant has to pay up for the entire remaining period. Again this type of advice tends to be subject to disagreements about how a court would act in this instance.

See the Shelter website to understand your obligations and how to end a fixed term AST.

GC81

Thanks for the fast reply, you've written what I had pretty much thought, the landlord here has been great and I dont want to cause them any more problems, looks like its best to carry on and give the adequate amount of notice for leaving in July.

Jowo_2

No harm in raising it though, as the upside could be that you save 3 months rent while the landlord also receives it from another tenant, neither side loses out. don't ask, don't get.

GC81

Well in case anyone is interested I went in and talked to the letting agent.
To leave early we need to give 8 weeks written notice stating date property will be vacant, and pay a charge of £125 +vat for readvertising of the property. Although we would be able to move out we would still be liable to pay all rents up until the end of the original contracted date if no new tenants were found.
We had long talk and decided to say until end of contract, seems like a waste of money but lots of factors to consider in that, plus gives us time to tidy/sort out house ready to move in, and more time to move out making sure we can receive all our deposit back. (meaning it looks as though we waste June's rent)
I'm glad agents were approachable enough to talk though and not just dismiss us.