Timing getting out of AST

Worried

Any advice greatly appreciated. Boyf and I are in process of buying a house. He is currently renting and has an AST that ends on the 5th Oct. We are in a small chain, we are FTB, the vendors of the house we're buying, are buying a vacant house which is end of chain and they are willing to vacate to suit us anyway, although we have told them there would be no need until end of Sep. We are only at the stage of having survey done, as are the vendors on their purchase. We have no idea of an exchange or completion date as yet, but realise it is quite likely to go through in less than the 5 months that is left on the AST. We are wondering how best to time speaking to the letting agent about my boyf leaving his AST early. There is no break clause in his contract, so realise he may have to pay up to the end of his tennancy, but have read elsewhere on this site, that the agent may allow him out early as long as they can find another tennant, or that he may have to cover the rent until they find a tennant.

If we wait until exchange to address this, then it might be leaving it a bit late and we might end up having to cover a couple of months rent. Do you think we should address this with the letting agent now? I just don't know how to time it all. Once they find out his intention is to leave, they can't serve notice on him early under the AST can they? Don't really want the letting agent to start advertising for a new tennant yet, as we've no idea of completion date. No idea how best to time it.

Guy_Montag

I would let the agent know the situation now, but not formally give notice that you are quitting. They may be able to help you out - they can't give your b/f notice & they won't start advertising until you formally give notice.

Talk to them & keep them informed - hopefully they will look on this kindly.

Worried

What is section 21? Can they serve notice under this, or is it only 2 months before end of agreement? When is a completion date normally set, once exchange has taken place?

Wings

Your landlord has to give a minimum Notice of 2 months, so the earliest date the landlord can give Notice is 5 August 2007.

I would suggest that you have a friendly word with both the landlord and any letting agent involved, very often they will work with the tenant and seek a new tenant to take over tenancy earlier, in fact you can help by also advertising the property yourself, in either the local rag (paper) or shop windows.

Worried

So the best thing would be to sound the letting agent out about this now (the landlady lives in Greece), even though we don't have much idea about how long the purchase is going to take?