End of Tenancy and New House Purchase

MatchaMan

Hi


I have just bought my first property and wish to leave my rental flat.


I emailed/wrote to the letting agent to explain my intention to leave the rental flat when my new property is complete - which should be early September. However, I was told that the rental agreement was fixed until December. No mention was made that they would look for another suitable tenant or indication that they would be willing to release me early from the contract.


Is there anything I can do to leave the rental property early?


Any help would be appreciated.

fairy_lights

Whether or not they will agree to release you from the contract is entirely up to the Landlord.
You could offer to find a replacement tenant yourself, or pay for re-letting costs.

HappyMJ

MatchaMan wrote: »

Hi


I have just bought my first property and wish to leave my rental flat.


I emailed/wrote to the letting agent to explain my intention to leave the rental flat when my new property is complete - which should be early September. However, I was told that the rental agreement was fixed until December. No mention was made that they would look for another suitable tenant or indication that they would be willing to release me early from the contract.


Is there anything I can do to leave the rental property early?


Any help would be appreciated.

You can leave whenever you want to leave.

You will have to pay the rent, council tax and standing charges for gas, electricity and water either until the end of the fixed term or until the landlord gets a new tenant in when the landlord will most probably accept your offer to surrender the tenancy.

The property will be empty for almost 4 months. Not too many landlords would like the property left empty for so long so the landlord (not the letting agent) should agree to re-advertise the property...especially if you offer to pay the tenant finding fee the landlord would have had to pay to find a new tenant. It's usually 50% of the first months rent.

martindow

If you have a fixed term then the LL may choose to release you early but will want compensation for this or may as you've found say no.

Dates for completing the building often slip - you may well find that there is going to be very little overlap between the tenancy and buying.

You need to be very careful you don't negotiate leaving early only to find that the new build is delayed. Moving twice, paying for storage and living in a hotel could well cost more than a couple of months rent.

thesaint

MatchaMan wrote: »

However, I was told that the rental agreement was fixed until December.

So, is this correct?

MatchaMan

thesaint wrote: »

So, is this correct?

Yes this is correct.

G_M

See

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

MatchaMan

Interesting. When we renewed our tenancy agreement at the start of this year we signed a letter to renew our tenancy but not a new tenancy agreement. Does this have an bearing on the length of our tenancy? And the possibility of leaving early with penalty?

CIS

You need to check out what council tax reductions you can claim for the unoccupied period.

Craig

thesaint

G_M wrote: »

See

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

From that post:

3) Landlord wishes tenant to leave

The landlord/agent must serve a Section 21 Notice, either
* S21(1)(b) (tenancies since 1/10/15) or

* Form 6a (tenancies pre 1/10/15)

Surely "post 30/09/15"?
Despite the(in my opinion uneeded) letting agent comment in the thread, this one is trying to help.

fairy_lights

MatchaMan wrote: »

Interesting. When we renewed our tenancy agreement at the start of this year we signed a letter to renew our tenancy but not a new tenancy agreement. Does this have an bearing on the length of our tenancy? And the possibility of leaving early with penalty?

What exactly did the letter say regarding the length of the tenancy?