Joint tenancy and pregnancy

LeeTt

Hi all,
Me and my wife, together with one more couple, rent and share 2 bed apartment. We have 24 months contract with breaking clause after 12 months, starting from March 2016.

The issue is - my wife is pregnant and we expecting a baby in January 2017. I contacted our agency with a question can we transfer our responsibilities for the contract to new tenants (and we agree to find them by our own). They answered that it is impossible and we need to pay for the contract till the end or till the breaking clause.

Could you please advice what can we do in this situation. As, from our prospective, it's completely unacceptable to live in shared apartment with a new-born. Also our room-mates wouldn't be happy to live with noisy baby in one flat.

Thank you

Pixie5740

Well if it is unacceptable to you to live in shared accommodation with a baby then you are your wife should have been more careful. Legally you are not entitled to end your contract before you can invoke the break clause. All you can do is negotiate an early surrender with your landlord or a Deed of Assignment (I think that's what it's called) to get new tenants in to replace you.

If you are having no joy with the letting agent then try negotiating directly with the person named as the landlord on your tenancy agreement.

fairy_lights

Why did you agree to a tenancy agreement for such a long term if you knew there was a possibility your circumstances would change?
If you can invoke the break clause in March, and the baby is due in January, then worst case scenario you can move out at the start of the year and pay rent on two properties for three months.

theartfullodger

It appears you have nothing to lose by negotiating directly with landlord, bypassing agent.

You contract is with landlord. The agent is just that, his agent, and ultimately has to do what landlord says.

G_M

Once you signed the tenancy agreement, you were contractually bound by its terms, so your choices were limited.

Whereas having a baby is a choice. Making that choice after commiting to the contract (rather than the other way round) might have been unwise.

As artful says, the landlord may take a more sympathetic or flexible view than his agent - does no harm to ask.

What exactly is the wording of the Break Clause? And what exactly are the tenancy start & end dates?

The only other option would be to sublet the room, under the landlord's radar (I suspect the tenancy agreement will not permit this), and of course with the joint tenants' agreement (as they'd be living with your sub-tenants).

However there are risks to this as you will remain legally liable for rent arrears, damage etc even though you no longer live there.

You would also become a landlord yourself, & thus liable for tax on the rent you receive + all the other landlord responsibilities......