Wanting to Buy now - ending AST early?

cascaid

Hi guys!

We signed a new 12 month contract for our apartment 6 weeks ago but we have decided that we would like to buy a house ASAP. Before anyone says it, I know it seems silly that we signed a new contract for 12 months but at the time we didn't know enough about our situation to be in a position to buy (my husband has since got a new job which means we are now stable financially and can look at buying now). We have enough deposit for the price bracket we are looking at and have spoken to a mortgage broker to see if it would be possible for us to even get a mortgage - it looks positive so far.

The landlord has always been reasonable with us in the past, do you think that we would be able to negotiate a surrender of the tenancy if we explained the situation to him? We could offer to pay for the cost of remarketing, any idea how much this would cost?

I know we should have maybe gone for just 6 month renewal but it's done now, any advice would be appreciated - the vast majority of you will have a better idea than me!! :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

Agreeing to end your fixed-term is totally at your landlord's discretion. In any case actually finding a property, getting a survey and being ready to exchange could take a good six months.

Reasonable marketing costs plus a tenant-finding fee charged by a letting-agent could run into £500

Is there a break-clause in your contract at around the six months mark?

cascaid

Having read through the contract the other day, there's no break clause. It states at the top of the agreement that we can get out of it with the permission of the landlord but thats it. He has already said that we are good tenants, just hoping that this will make him more amenable to negotiation on this issue. We are happy to give him plenty of notice too!

BitterAndTwisted

Sound the landlord out by all means but do not commit yourselves to a time-frame without having a firm completion date.

You do not want the landlord to press on with finding a replacement tenant and find you have no purchased property to move into!

You might find the landlord willing to be more amenable if you assure him that your are willing to be completely reasonable with regard to providing access for viewings etcetera.

smileykt

Get on with finding somewhere to buy and don't mention it to your landlord until you're somewhere close to exchange. We started the process of looking for somewhere to buy in October. In February we had an offer accepted. In June that sale fell through. We found another house and we're waiting to exchange (should be moving in October now). So in the end you might not have to cut your tenancy short!

The_Deep

As a landlord, I have no problems with ending ASTs early as long as tenants are aware that they must put me in the position I would have been if the event not not taken place.

This will include commissions already paid, travel and time spend interviewing prospective tenants.