Ending an assured short hold tennacy

morwok

Hi,

I've had a search around but I can't seem to find the exact answer. My contract is up in the middle of May and today I told my landlord I do not want to renew.

He has now stated that I must give two months notice which takes me into June as I have a two month break clause. There is nothing in my contract stating this (and I will double check when I get home) but I would assume unless I stay past the end and it becomes a periodic tenancy or I sign a new contract then I can freely leave once it ends?

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks.

RAS

if you are inEngland or Wales, you can leave at the end of the contract without even telling him. Out of politeness, a bit of notice might facilitate a good reference etc.

He has to give you 2 month's notice if he does not want to renew the tenancy agreement, however.

Marvel1

"Your tenancy agreement should say how much notice you need to give your landlord before you leave the property. If there is nothing in the tenancy agreement about ending your tenancy, you may not have to give any notice.

You can end a fixed-term tenancy by giving your landlord written notice up to two months before the tenancy ends. Your tenancy will then finish at the end of the fixed-term."

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189123

00ec25

[QUOTE=cjdavies;42563696You can end a fixed-term tenancy by giving your landlord written notice up to two months before the tenancy ends. Your tenancy will then finish at the end of the fixed-term."

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189123[/QUOTE]

that is indeed what is says BUT IT IS WRONG the T can leave at the end of the fixed term without giving any notice at all, there is certainly no legal requirement to serve 2 months notice in writing of the T's intention to leave at the end of the fixed term.

good as the directgov website is , at times it can over simplify, if you want some proper guidance read the shelter website on ending a FT tenancy particularly the second point "What happens when my agreement runs out?"

as for the OP you have correctly understood the situation
- an undocumented "break clause" is irrelevant as its not worth the paper its not written on. Furthermore the LL would have been mad to give you a break clause option during the first 6 months as it would not apply to him since he cannot evict in the first 6 months anyway. In any event the LL cannot invoke a break clause notice period as a means of extending the rental period beyond the end of the FT contract date, the break caluse is by defintion to address the circumstance for ending the agreement early, QED, it cannot be used to end an agreement late!

- your contract is "up" in May. I take this to mean the fixed term ends and as you know you can leave (without notice) on the last day of the rental period, so if you contract started on say 12th Nov and was for 6 months then you can leave on 11th May. But stay until 12th May and you are into a new rental period which will be a statutory periodic tenancy (unless you sign a new tenancy agreement and start a new fixed term) under which the T has to give 1 months notice. As so often happens the LL has failed to understand that notice periods for the LL are different to those for the T

Cissi

cjdavies wrote: »

"Your tenancy agreement should say how much notice you need to give your landlord before you leave the property. If there is nothing in the tenancy agreement about ending your tenancy, you may not have to give any notice.

You can end a fixed-term tenancy by giving your landlord written notice up to two months before the tenancy ends. Your tenancy will then finish at the end of the fixed-term."

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189123

??? I'm pretty sure that you don't legally have to give notice if you leave at the end of an AST (careful though: if a 12-month AST started on say May 15th 2010 you have to leave no later than May 14th 2011). The LL on the other hand would have to give you two months' notice if he didn't intend to renew the contract. Once you're into a periodic tenancy you have to give one month's notice and for the LL it's still 2.

Of course it's best to cooperate with the LL as much as possible for the sake of a good reference and avoiding hassle with the deposit etc. But legally you're completely within your rights - or so I thought???

Cissi

I completely agree with 00EC25 except that in his example the tenant would have to leave by June 11th, not May

00ec25

Cissi wrote: »

I completely agree with 00EC25 except that in his example the tenant would have to leave by June 11th, not May

quite right - have edited to correct - I only have 4 fingers and a thumb so counting backwards beyond 5 is not my strongpoint

Gwhiz

OP - are you talking about the END of the contract or the BREAK clause being used?

morwok

Thanks everyone. My 12 month contract ends on 15th May so I have given him 6 weeks notice which is more than fair. I'm glad I got this right as my landlord who I think is just getting confused has said I can now leave on 3rd June long after my contract actually ends.

dkmax_2

00ec25 wrote: »

that is indeed what is says BUT IT IS WRONG the T can leave at the end of the fixed term without giving any notice at all, there is certainly no legal requirement to serve 2 months notice in writing of the T's intention to leave at the end of the fixed term.

Their statement is correct if read strictly.

An AST contract, as commonly drafted, has two component terms - the fixed term (T1) and a remainder (T2) which brings it to the end of the contracted period (T). The latter term (T2) may be of zero length but T = T1 + T2.

Different rules apply in T1 versus T2.

You must give two month's notice to surrender at the end of the fixed term (T1) but you do not need to give notice to surrender at the end of contracted term (T). This is how break-clauses are normally drafted in the era of ASTs, e.g. a fixed term of 6 months (the legal minimum) and an additional period of 6 months bringing it up to the contracted term of a year.