Leave property after 6 months break clause?

jayutd

This is the response the agency have given. Seems like we we only be given 5 days notice to leave if they find a new Tennant and we still have to pay all bills during that time - is this legal?

” If authorisation is given allowing you to vacate the premises before the expiration of any tenancy agreement, you shall be liable to pay the following:

i) Rent up to the date on which the premises are re-let or the expiration of the tenancy agreement, whichever is the sooner
ii) Council tax, water rates, gas and electricity charges along with any other bills which are your responsibility under the tenancy agreement up to the date the premises are re-let, or the expiration of the tenancy agreement, whichever is the sooner
iii) justifiable costs in re-letting the property of £180 inc. VAT

You will have to be prepared to move out 5 days before the new tenant moves in so that maintenance & checks can be carried out, you will still be liable for rent, council tax and utilities for those days.

saajan_12

jayutd said:

Thanks for your help all, please see wording below:

” The Tenant shall have the right to terminate the tenancy on 24th January 2022 by giving to the Landlord no less than two months written notice before this date. Upon the expiration of such notice this Agreement and everything herein contained shall cease and be void subject nevertheless to the right of the parties in respect of any antecedent breach of any of the covenants herein contained. Should the break clause not be activated the tenancy shall continue until the end of the fixed term of the Agreement.”

Sounds pretty clear, its a one time only break clause whereby you'd have to serve notice on / before 24th Nov 2021 and vacate by 24th Jan 2022. That's now come and gone, so its irrelevant. You're therefore left with negotiating an early termination with the LL outside the tenancy agreement. It only goes ahead if you both agree on the terms, otherwise the default position is you continue paying rent for the full fixed term. 

jayutd said:

This is the response the agency have given. Seems like we we only be given 5 days notice to leave if they find a new Tennant and we still have to pay all bills during that time - is this legal?

” If authorisation is given allowing you to vacate the premises before the expiration of any tenancy agreement, you shall be liable to pay the following:

i) Rent up to the date on which the premises are re-let or the expiration of the tenancy agreement, whichever is the sooner
ii) Council tax, water rates, gas and electricity charges along with any other bills which are your responsibility under the tenancy agreement up to the date the premises are re-let, or the expiration of the tenancy agreement, whichever is the sooner
iii) justifiable costs in re-letting the property of £180 inc. VAT

You will have to be prepared to move out 5 days before the new tenant moves in so that maintenance & checks can be carried out, you will still be liable for rent, council tax and utilities for those days.

So these are the terms of the early termination they are willing to offer. There's nothing legal / illegal about it, you're free to just decline and pay rent for the rest of the fixed term. The actual costs sound reasonable, provided they cap at the rent for the rest of the fixed term, ie (iii) is not charged if they don't find the replacement and you pay upto the end of the fixed term anyway. It covers their genuine costs ie rent over the void, and £180 doesn't go very far when you think about time to hold viewings, discuss contract, pay for an extra check in / check out / references. 

Also its not 5 days notice, you may well find out a new tenant can move in 20 days time, so you should move in 15 days time, to give them time to clean etc. Its silent on notice, so you can ask but I would guess that once they've found a tenant and have an idea of the date, that's when they would 'give authorisation' and you'd agree to trigger the above, so you know if you can move out by X - 5 days. 

Sistergold

jayutd said:

Thanks for your help all, please see wording below:

” The Tenant shall have the right to terminate the tenancy on 24th January 2022 by giving to the Landlord no less than two months written notice before this date. Upon the expiration of such notice this Agreement and everything herein contained shall cease and be void subject nevertheless to the right of the parties in respect of any antecedent breach of any of the covenants herein contained. Should the break clause not be activated the tenancy shall continue until the end of the fixed term of the Agreement.”

This is similar to what I had. It was basically incase property was not suitable and so as to allow me to move out midway. Almost left as road was very noisy but stayed the 1yr in the end decide to buy ear plugs. Why are you now in a hurry to leave soon after the expiry of your break clause, can you not stick it out? Make it work somehow? Can you afford to move and pay for two properties concurrently if they don’t find a tenant? If they know you will be paying they might not prioritise actually getting the tenant. Estate agents can be tricky and picky if money is coming anyway. Just saying. 🤷‍♀️