Ending tenancy early

mynameisdrew

Hi all,

This is my first post.

We are looking to end our tenancy early (earlier than our 12month break clause) due to various reasons that have made it very stressful and difficult to live in the flat.

We moved in in October, to break the contract on May 25th we have been told to pay a fee in excess of £1500. Unfortunately we just can't afford that. This fee hasn't been explained in any way so I assumed it's just a fee to break the contract rather than being directly associated with admin costs.

The only clause we have for Early Termination is the below:

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.

To me it seems like we shouldn't be charged a fee according to our contract. I can understand why there would be one, as we are break a binding contract, but surely I can use this to try and negotiate the fee down.

We are also worried that the agency won't try very hard to get a new tenant leaving us possibly having to pay rent right up until the tenancy agreement ends.

If you have any advice we would be very grateful, it's been very stressful so far!

Thanks,

Drew

Browntoa

I'm assuming it's the rent for the remaining months on the contract you signed , not a separate fee

jonnygee2

The estate agent can charge you the cost of all of the rent up until the break clause if they want to. Many, instead, will offer to charge a one off fee which is lower than this amount, which it sounds like you've been offered.

If this is the case, I doubt you'd be able to negotiate this as it's already lower than what they could charge. However if they want to charge this on top of the rent, then obviously they can't do that.

We are also worried that the agency won't try very hard to get a new tenant leaving us possibly having to pay rent right up until the tenancy agreement ends.

Yes you should be worried. They are currently under no obligation and no pressure to speed this up.

If you wanted to play hardball and don't care about your reference from them, you could tell them you are in severe financial difficulties and may have to declare yourselves bankrupt in a few months. This would provide plentiful motivation for them to replace you swiftly and to accept any offer you might give them.

Cakeguts

It isn't a fee it is probably the rent for the time that you will not be living there until the break clause. The agreement that you signed and that you have quoted says that you agree to do that. Have you given one month's notice that you want to leave or are you thinking that you can just move out on that day?