Can I exit my tenancy agreement? Various problems...

N79

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

Hi

The landlord has a responsibility to minimise your losses by getting new tenants as quickly as possible. If the agents/landlord are decent people they will do what they can to help.

That really is a strong statement, much stronger than the reality. It would be reasonable to say that a LL may have a duty to minimise the OPs loses but that case law, such as it stands (it is all from the world of commercial lets), suggests otherwise. For the latest example, see Reichman and Dunn v Beveridge and Gauntlett [2006].

At the risk of being accused of selective quotign, in this case the T's arguement was: "Mr Gauntlett urged on us a modern approach to the relationship between landlord and tenant, focussing on principles of contract law, and a policy approach which would not leave premises empty, after the tenants had abandoned them and while the landlord waited for the end of the lease, so as to avoid the waste of useful space and to ensure that property is put to beneficial use"

to which the court responded: "it seems to me that Mr Gauntlett's submissions fail to take account of the present state of English law as to the consequences of the premature termination of a tenancy"

Of course, if the LL agrees to seek new Ts at the current Ts expense then they should do so with reasonable effort. I would also agree that decent LL will not mess about with re-marketing the property, even where the T has not sought their agreement - but this does not appear to be a legal duty. For this reason, Ts should always ask their LL for early termination and should expect to negotiate the terms as this is not something that a LL has to do - so the T's terms should be generous enough to induce their LL to allow the early surrender.