Assured Shorthold Tenancy - break clause

IllCommunication

Hi guys

I am a tenant and I think my tenancy agreement has a break clause but the wording is a bit ambiguous, just wondering if anyone has experience of these and can offer an opinion? The exact wording is:

Notice Period

1. The Assured Shorthold Tenancy created by this Agreement:
(i) May be brought to an end at, the expiration of the term by one month’s notice in writing by the Tenant to the Landlord or the Landlord’s Agent, given after seven months and fifteen days of this Agreement have elapsed;

(ii) May be brought to an end, at the expiration of the term by two months’ notice in writing by the Landlord or the Landlord’s Agent to the Tenant after five months of this Agreement have elapsed; and the Landlord hereby notifies the Tenant that possession of the Property may be recovered by the Landlord as defined in The Housing Act 1988 (as amended 1996).

Do you think this (part (i)) means I can give 1 month's notice to leave any time after 7 months 15 days into the tenancy? Or does "at the expiration of the term" mean I can only do this at the end of the term of the agreement ie 12 months (in which case I can't really see the point of it)?

Any expert opinions gratefully received!

booksurr

as written it is not a break clause at all

it simply defines the respective notice period required from the tenant and the LL in respect of whether either party intends to continue with the contract after 12 months

since by definition a contract ends when the expiry date occurs it is utter rubbish!

it is a rather pathetic attempt to build into the contract a requirement that you, the tenant, "have" to inform the LL whether you intend to leave at 12 months so the Ll can market the property in time to reduce his chance of a void

it has nothing whatsoever to do with early termination of the contract before the term date. You are both bound to a 12 month fixed term

G_M

It's is a load of legal gobbledeegook with not enforcible meaning whatever!

* It's a 12 month contract. By definition, at the end of 12 months it ends, whether notice is given or not, unless over-ridden by Statute in which case the contractual term is also irrelevant since statute over-rides contract.

* there is no mention of ending the tenancy except "at the expiration of the term ", therefore there is no Break Clause.

jjlandlord

It is difficult to reply without knowing exactly how the tenancy is defined.

IllCommunication

Thanks for the replies guys, haha so sounds like it means absolutely nothing! How odd that they would even bother putting that in! Ah well at least I know where I stand.

Edit: jjlandlord it's a 12 month contract so earlier in the tenancy agreement it clearly states that it is for one year and ends on X date, and it has a section on early termination which says

"If the Tenant vacates the Premises during the Term apart from according to any agreed break clause which is included within the Agreement, the Tenant will remain liable to pay Rent and any other monies payable under this Agreement until the Term expires; or the Premises are re-let whichever is earlier. "

and the paragraphs I quoted in my first post are in a section at the end called "Special Clauses (individually negotiated with the Tenant)" but there was definitely no special mention of them or negotiation when we originally signed up.

jjlandlord

If the tenancy is defined as a 12 month fixed term tenancy then these clauses are useless indeed.
They only allow you to end the tenancy at the end of the 12 month term, but that's already when it ends in any case by definition...