Quitting an Assured Shorthold Tenancy

SE9Gull

Good morning

Am hoping that some of you might have been in this particular situation (either from a landlord or tenant side) and can provide me with some advice on how best to deal with it.

We signed an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement on 24th October 2003 for a term of 12 months on a property - there is no mention anywhere on this, or the notes from the letting agents (Company A) of any period of notice requirements.

On August 16th 2004, September 16th 2005 and September 13th 2006 we have signed letters agreeing to 12 month extensions of the tenancy agreements - however, we have never had a new tenancy agreement. These letters were sent by the landlords managing agents (Company B in 2004 and Company C since then)

We are now close to exchanging contracts on a property, and I would imagine that we will be wanting to leave our rented accomodation from the 23rd February.

There is no history of dispute between us or the managing agents - I just want to be forearmed of any potential banana skins.

Here are my questions
1) Will sending a letter by recorded delivery expressing our desire to end the teneacy agreement on 23rd Feb be sufficient?
2) Who should the letter go to, the letting agents, managing agents or the landlord?
3) If the agents/landlord insist that we cannot leave our agreement, what in reality are they likely to do if we move out and stop paying rent from 23rd Feb. The letting agents are sitting on a £1000 deposit of ours which I am loathe to lose but can if necessary live without.

Thank you for your time in reading all this, any help will be much appreciated.

jamesd

Read the tenancy agreement. It may provide a way to give notice before the end of the term. If not, you have a problem.

You're going to create a dispute now, with a massive breach of your primary obligation under the terms of the tenancy agreement.

1. Sending the letter will tell the landlord that you want to breach your tenancy agreement. It won't end the tenancy because it's not a valid notice, failing to end on the proper date.
2. Be nice to the landlord and discuss the situation as soon as possible. Ask the landlord to agree to you surrendering the tenancy - something that is their choice to accept or not. Perhaps offer to pay the costs of replacing you as a tenant and half of the rent until there's new tenant in place. It won't be the managing agent who decides whether to be nice to you or not.
3. Take you to court for all rent until they have replaced you as a tenant and the costs of finding a new tenant. Or, if the landlord wants to be really unpleasant about it, for the full remaining cost of the term, which is their right and may well happen if they can't get another tenant or can only do so at reduced rent

These things happen. It probably won't end up in a really messy situation, because decent landlords know it's part of life and letting. Still, you are planning to cause them a loss by breaching a contract, so should be prepared to pay for that if another tenant isn't found.

You should have asked or arranged to extend without a guaranteed term, or at least with a shorter one. No term leaves you in a statutory periodic tenancy with only a month ending on the day the rent is due as the notice period you have to give. Or two months if it's from the landlord to you.

See this notice to quit article.

The deposit isn't for rent, it's for damage to the property. You'd still be liable to pay the last month's rent, not use the deposit for it, if you were giving a proper termination notice. Then you'd get all or part of the deposit back based on property damage, other than fair wear and tear.

AuntyJean

Try posting your query on this website. I have searched it but cannot find any queries similar to yours.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/

It does seem unfair to me to expect someone to be responsible for the remainder of the agreement but what about if you find a suitable alternative tenant? Is there anything in your agreement about sub-letting?

Good luck

SE9Gull

Thanks for the responses so far, those links proved very useful. However, I have one further question that arises from this.

Our Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement was signed in 2003. Since then we have only signed letters from the managing agents, the agreement itself has never been updated - am I right in thinking that our agreement has (in the yes of the law) actually changed into a Statutory Periodic Tenancy?

Cheers.

clutton_2

depends on what the letters say - if it says "renew as per original terms of AST" or similar, then you are now not in a periodic.

I can only agree with everything that JamesD says. Negotiate with the landlord and try to see it from his point of view also. I would offer half of the £1000 to him to help him find a replacement tenant, but do get it in writing that he has allowed you to end the AST early with no future penalties.

Aunty Jean - why is this unfair ? both parties have signed a legally binding agreement. If the landlord wanted to kick the tenant out after 3 months, that also would be unfair/illegal.

rosysparkle

From the information you have posted, no, you don't have a periodic, you have a twelve month agreement from 24th Oct 06 to 23 Oct 07, which is binding on both you and the landlord.

Your landlord may allow you to terminate the tenancy eight months early, but he doesn't have to. I agree with JamesD and clutton, try and negotiate with your landlord but be prepared to be held to the agreement, which means you are liable for the rent and utilities and council tax on the property until 23 Oct 07.

I hope that your landlord will allow early termination once a new tenant is found. At work, most of our landlords will allow early termination but only if there is a new tenancy.

Gorgeous_George

If the LL had wanted you to leave in February, he/she would have needed to give you two months' notice and to have had the reasons allowed for in the agreement. Otherwise, you could have stayed for the full 12 months.

I find that if I am reasonable with people, they are usually reasonable with me. Speak to your LL and letting agents and appeal to their goodwill. Did you not know tat you may wish to leave in February when you agreed to 12 months back in September?

Best wishes

GG

SE9Gull

In reply to GorgeousGeorge's point - I did not know in Oct that I would be wanting to leave in Feb, but more importantly I had no idea that my tenancy agreement had no get-out clause whatsoever contained within it, I have been renting for the last 16 years and never considered the fact that this particular agreement had no escape hatch - I just wish it had been pointed out to us at the time.

I realise now that I will have to rely on goodwill to get out of this and will compose a letter pleading our case and offering half the deposit to cover the costs of finding someone else. It shouldn't be difficult to rent it - its on one of the prime roads in town and is considerably underpriced compared to similar rental properties in the area.

Just two final questions before this thread gets put to bed - who do you recommend I contact initially - we know absolutely nothing about the landlord other than a company name and address, all the day-to-day dealings have been conducted with a managing agent who has worked for 2 different companies during our tenure, and more confusingly, we left our deposit and were vetted by a lettings agency down the road. Or should I send the same letter to all 3 parties?

And should I write the letter myself or get my extremely amenable solictor who is handling my house pruchase to do it for me? Which would go down better in your opinions?

Ta

clutton_2

just before you lose un-necessary money - may i suggest you start by offering to pay for say 3 days of advertising for a new tenant - rather than go in with £500 as your opening offer !!!

i would write to current letting agent, and also ask who holds the deposit - you do have a receipt for it don;t you ?

jamesd

Given your description, make an informal phone call to the managing agent, say that you're interested in surrendering the tenancy in a couple of months and ask them to check to see if the landlord is happy to do that. If your rent hasn't been changed it's possible that the landlord might just be not rocking the boat with rent changes and might welcome the chance to charge new tenants more.

Best to keep it informal for now, since that'll give you a chance to feel out the situation before offering anything.

No harm in asking your solicitor to take a look at the tenancy agreement and letters first, just to confirm that you are in a 12 month term. But I don't know of anyone who likes a letter from a solicitor as the first news of something happening, so definitely go informal initially.:)

franklee

rosysparkle wrote:

Your landlord may allow you to terminate the tenancy eight months early, but he doesn't have to. I agree with JamesD and clutton, try and negotiate with your landlord but be prepared to be held to the agreement, which means you are liable for the rent and utilities and council tax on the property until 23 Oct 07.

The landlord cannot just sit back and charge the tenant eight months rent. The landlord is obliged to mitigate his loss be finding a replacement tenant. The old tenant can only be charged rent till the property is re let and for reasonable advertising costs.

rosysparkle wrote:

I hope that your landlord will allow early termination once a new tenant is found. At work, most of our landlords will allow early termination but only if there is a new tenancy.

The landlord using his best endeavours to re let isn't optional it's mandatory and if he doesn't do this then he can't charge the old tenant the rent.