Question about notice period

confusedmummy

I have a quick question about a rental contract. Our contract was renewed last September 9th for a year with a break clause that after 4 months, either us or LL can terminate the contract by giving 2 months notice in writing. We think we have found a flat that we like and so I would like to give notice in the next few days. Since we normally pay our monthly rent on the 9th of every month, if we give notice on, say 21st April, does that mean we pay normal rent on the 9th May and then the calculated rent for the days spanning 9th June until the 20th June? Presumably we don't have to give notice of two months only on the day our initial contract started?

StudentMoneySaver

Usually giving two months notice means you give it on the day the rent is due (i.e. the 9th of the month) and it expires the day before the rent is due in two months time (i.e. the 8th of the month).

e.g. you give notice on the 9th of May and it expires on the 8th of July.

You'll have to negotiate with the LL if you want to deviate from this as it seems like the he will be losing rent if you pay pro rata.

Kimmy2309

We were in a similar position in that we gave notice on the 15th February but our rent was due on the 6th of the month. We were told that the 2 months were from the 6th so the earliest that we could give the keys back would be the 5th May. Luckily our landlord found someone else to move in sooner so we were able to get rid of the keys a whole month early. He didn't have to do that though.

N79

StudentMoneySaver wrote: »

Usually giving two months notice means you give it on the day the rent is due (i.e. the 9th of the month) and it expires the day before the rent is due in two months time (i.e. the 8th of the month).

e.g. you give notice on the 9th of May and it expires on the 8th of July.

You'll have to negotiate with the LL if you want to deviate from this as it seems like the he will be losing rent if you pay pro rata.

No - you would normally give notice to end a periodic tenancy so that the notice ends on the last day of a rental period. When rent is paid has absolutely nothing to do with it.

However, in this case as the OP is exercising a break clause so the notice is governed by the clause and not the statutory notice rules. If the break clause is silent on when it can be activated (ie is a badly worded clause) then the T and LL will need to agree whether to allow 2 months notice to end on any day or whether they should use the end of a rent period as the last day of notice.

wessexw

Whenever I've handed in my notice but left before the eg. month was up and a new tenant was found to move in before the month was up, the LL asked that I pay for the full month and I was then reimbursed the difference along with my deposit after I had left. I don't know if thats the 'proper' way of doing things but it's what happened to me.