Negotiating Break Clause - Opinions? Suggestions?

Phirefly

We've requested to break our rental agreement 6 months into a 12-month contract. We have been in the property 5.5 years and have a good relationship with our landlords with whom we deal direct, although they pay an agent to manage the rental.

We have a break clause in our contract which states that we can end the agreement early but are liable for the rent until a replacement tenant is found. Instead, our landlords have proposed that we may pay one months' rent as compensation (after we vacate) and cover their agents' remarketing fee of £412.

We have friends who wish to take over occupancy when we leave. I am very confident that they would be considered by our landlords to be suitable tenants and would pass all relevant checks. We have offered to cover the cost of the two-week period between occupancies during which our landlords wish to undertake cosmetic maintenance for standard wear and tear.

Our landlords are insisting that we still pay the remarketing fee and compensation, and are refusing to propose our friends as potential tenants to their agency. A friend who is a letting agent has advised me that a straightforward new application should not be charged at the same rate as total remarketing without prospective tenants already lined up.

I know they have us over a barrel really and we are relying on the goodwill of our landlords to explore the option of our friends as replacement tenants with an occupancy which dovetailed into ours.

I am a landlord myself and I would jump at the chance of replacement tenants proposed by my existing excellent tenants which would omit the possibility of a void. Especially with the knowledge that when we took over the tenancy, the property had lain unoccupied for 5 months because of several incompetencies on the agents' part as described to us by our landlords. We know this to be the case as we applied for the property ourselves when it was first marketed but due to incompetencies at the agents, our application was never processed so we resorted to contacting the landlords directly to secure the tenancy.

How can we convince them to work with us on this? Or is it a lost cause and we need to just be grateful they're not holding us to the break clause?

Thanks for reading. I know its very dry for a Friday afternoon.

TrixA

Have your landlords given a reason why they won't consider your friends as replacement tenants?

As you say, most landlords would be happy with that solution, so there must be something else going on. If you want to negotiate, you need to find out what's motivating them. For example, perhaps they didn't increase the rent very much during your tenancy and are seeing the opportunity to get a significantly higher rent if they remarket?

pmlindyloo

Doesn't sound like a break clause to me, more like how you can end the tenancy early.

Could you copy out the specific clause in your agreement for us to look at?

Phirefly

Thanks for your replies. I'm now toddler-wrangling so will grab the contract in a moment.

They won't give us a reason, but they're very cautious and like to take the agents guidance on all matters. Of course in this matter, the agent is advising them the course of action which stands to earn them(the agents) the greatest return.

Phirefly

Yes, pmlindyloo, my mistake it is an early termination clause, not a break clause. It states:

"If the tenant vacates the premises during the term, the tenant will remain liable to pay rent and any other monies payable until the term expires or the premises is re-let, whichever is earlier. The tenant will also pay the landlords reasonable costs incurred re-letting the property and compensate the landlord for the portion of the the agency fees paid by the landlord for the contracted period that the tenant fails to pay rent."

TrixA, we have told our landlords that our friends are prepared for the rent to increase from our current pcm...

thesaint

Anything in your tenancy agreement about sub-letting, reassigning etc?

Phirefly

Yeah, thesaint there's a no subletting clause. The more I think round it the more it dawns on me we're just going to have to suck it up.

What makes it so unreasonable is we've given them 3 months notice

Also feeling especially hard done by as we've been model tenants for 5 years, we've spent almost 8k on garden maintenance as the garden is huge and unweildy. We've always had weekly professional cleaners and went halves with the landlords to replace the dangerously worn carpets. I am just gutted that there's not been more goodwill and attempt to work together to find a less financially burdensome outcome for us. Ho hum.

G_M

This sounds like one of those LLs who washes their hands of the tenancy. Leaves all the work, and decision-making, to his agent.

Either through ignorance, laziness, fear, lack of time, lack of knowledge, or whatever.

Often not the wisest approach, but nonetheless fair enough - he's paying someone else to do the job, so he won't get involved.

The botton line is that you signed a 12 month contract, so unless you can negotiate something, you are legally committed.

marksoton

Phirefly wrote: »

Also feeling especially hard done by as we've been model tenants for 5 years, we've spent almost 8k on garden maintenance as the garden is huge and unweildy. We've always had weekly professional cleaners and went halves with the landlords to replace the dangerously worn carpets. I am just gutted that there's not been more goodwill and attempt to work together to find a less financially burdensome outcome for us. Ho hum.

Are you mad!? Why ever did you spend out those sort of sums?

Phirefly

marksoton wrote: »

Are you mad!? Why ever did you spend out those sort of sums?

No not mad. Just responsible tenants who are contractually obliged to maintain a large garden (and wish to maintain it for our own ease of use) so hire excellent ground maintenece operatives to do so bimonthly at a fee of £250/day.

That really is the long and short of it, isn't it, G_M

marksoton

Phirefly wrote: »

No not mad. Just responsible tenants who are contractually obliged to maintain a large garden (and wish to maintain it for our own ease of use) so hire excellent ground maintenece operatives to do so bimonthly at a fee of £250/day.

Fair enough. Personally i'd only spend those sort of sums if i owned a property.

Best of luck with your negotiations.