Tenant Wants To Vacate Early, Before Agreed Term In Tenancy Agreement
09 Apr 2009
So, what happens when a tenant wants to ignore the lawfully binding Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement they agreed to and signed, by abandoning your property before due date? It happens all the time. Until recently, I wasn’t actually sure what rights the Landlord had in this situation. I only bothered to investigate further when a reader informed me she was going through the experience.
Can the tenant leave during the tenancy?
If the tenant has a fixed term tenancy but wants to move out before the end of the term, he or she can only do so if you agree or if this is allowed for by a “break clause” in the tenancy agreement and the tenant has followed any requirements for giving notice specified in the tenancy agreement.
If the agreement does not allow the tenant to leave early and you do not agree that he or she can break the agreement, the tenant will be contractually obliged to pay you the rent for the entire length of the fixed term.
If the tenancy has no fixed term, the tenant must give you notice in writing of his or her intention to leave. He or she must give at least 4 weeks notice where rent is paid on a weekly basis and at least a month’s notice where rent is paid on a monthly basis.
So, as it stands, landlords are pretty well protected in this situation, which is good news =]
What are the landlords’ options?
- Continue to enforce payments from the tenant, as the tenant is liable until the tenancy is legally terminated
- The tenant can provide a new tenant BUT the tenant has to be acceptable to you, the landlord. Until that time the tenant is completely liable
- The landlord may choose to break the tenancy by suggesting that a financial settlement be made i.e. if they owe 7 months – you will settle for 4 months
- The landlord can find a new tenant, and hold the tenant liable for the costs of finding the tenant (advertising, agency fees etc).
- If at any point the landlord approves the actions of the tenant vacating early, then they can legally stop paying the rent.
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Talk / 71 Comments left so far
DanielZ wrote this on 2010-07-05 09:05:02
Sorry to disagree with most of you, BUT...
As someone said there, YES THIS IS A BUSINESS, and you should make intelligent decisions in the running of it.
If you have been a good Landlord and have a good quality property, your tenant will be happy to stay. If they want to leave early they usually have a very good reason to do so. And that reason is 99% of the time FINANCIAL.
QUESTION: would you like to force a Tenant who is in financial trouble to stay at your property just because you have a signed contract?? You are setting yourself up for major disaster!
If you are a serious PROFESSIONAL Landlord with a HIGH QUALITY property you should find no difficulty in securing a new HIGH QUALITY tenant, even in tough times!
So if your tenant wants to leave and has very good reasons to do so, LET HIM! Swallow your silly pride and be practical! Don't be emotional, this is a BUSINESS!
From experience, it will cost you much less in the long run.
As someone said there, YES THIS IS A BUSINESS, and you should make intelligent decisions in the running of it.
If you have been a good Landlord and have a good quality property, your tenant will be happy to stay. If they want to leave early they usually have a very good reason to do so. And that reason is 99% of the time FINANCIAL.
QUESTION: would you like to force a Tenant who is in financial trouble to stay at your property just because you have a signed contract?? You are setting yourself up for major disaster!
If you are a serious PROFESSIONAL Landlord with a HIGH QUALITY property you should find no difficulty in securing a new HIGH QUALITY tenant, even in tough times!
So if your tenant wants to leave and has very good reasons to do so, LET HIM! Swallow your silly pride and be practical! Don't be emotional, this is a BUSINESS!
From experience, it will cost you much less in the long run.
66
Twattybollocks wrote this on 2010-07-05 10:17:20
Of course its a business so you let him go once you have secured a new tenant but until then the incumbent pays! Can't be much more intelligent than that!
Of course most decisions to leave are financial - loss of job, divorce, move to better paying job etc, but if this is likely to be the case then long term AST's should not be entered into.
The business of the landlord is to make money and provide accomodation however each circumstance must be taken on its own individual merits.
Nowt to do with pride - business is war!
Jools
Of course most decisions to leave are financial - loss of job, divorce, move to better paying job etc, but if this is likely to be the case then long term AST's should not be entered into.
The business of the landlord is to make money and provide accomodation however each circumstance must be taken on its own individual merits.
Nowt to do with pride - business is war!
Jools
67
meka wrote this on 2010-08-04 22:42:37
I have an awkward situation and advice be appreciated:
I am a tenant, having recently missed rent payment thanks to hsbc who I am still fighting, arrears was due to the landlord. we never once said he would not get it but even after obtaining proof of our payments made he has decided we must have forged it!!
he then demanded he would only accept full or reasonable sized payments for it which we tried to oblige with finding a loan but were unable to acquire. it was at that point I enquired about our deposit which we had never heard anything of since the start of the tenancy (which he informed us he had spent on his bills for the property). I asked about using it to address any remaining arrears at the end of the tenancy (2 months time away at that point) so we knew how much to try and pay til then.. he refused many times to give me details on the money and saying it was referred to his solicitor. eventually after much persuasion he told me that the money was with his girlfriends father! and that he will be taking the money due in arrears to county court... I was quite happy with this as we nver said we woulnt pay it and understand him wanting to have a legally binding payment plan. but this wasn't the end of it...
shortly after we received paperwork from his solictor seeking repossesion of the property and stating he will be going for eviction from the first the following month apparently due to us not showing willingness to pay any more rent.. a bit odd considering we had agreed he or a representative could collect the rent in cash on door that month.
not long after that we recieved a further letter from his solicitor offering the chance to vacate the property at the end of that month before eviction proceedings began saying the landlord is fed up of the situation and offering this if we wish, at which point the arrears will still be owed and will firstly be taken out the deposit after delapidations and the rest owed, but no time frames indicated. we received the letter midmonth with 2 weeks to find a property if we wanted. we decided as he wanted the property back and we were thoroughly fed up of the constant issues during the tenancy, that we would make every effort to oblige and end the situation. we initially didn't say we were going to take it directly to him incase we couldn't find anywhere, our landlord has a nasty habbit of twisting things and if had said we were trying that it would have somehow been taken as us saying we had accepted as found somewhere. we couldn't risk potentially being turfed out cause he mistrued what we said.
after finding somewhere we informed him with one of the two weeks remaining.. it was at this point he said the offer was soley dependant on the money being paid in full in cash on the door! which later he added more conditions to when we tried to contest that his solictors letter had not states this and considering he was taking the arrears to county court anyway that it made no sense! having sought advise we were told our assumptions based on the solicitors letter was correct and having made arrangements to mov we had to take it. we informed our landlord we were vacating and he now refuses to accept the property back and was going to hold us to the full tenancy for the remaining month and half.
So 12 hours after we left he was at the property changing the locks and putting up abandonment notices in the windows stuck to the interior sides. he was claiming to some neighbours that he had no idea we had left in an attempt to try and obtain abandoment statements.
he now appears to no longer be pursuing eviction despite considering us still in occupation and has said he will be demanding it all be paid in court.. personally I believe he is just trying to get more money from us and didn't expect we would be capable of taking the offer with only 2 weeks to arrange new housing and now doesn't want to accept it after making it clear he just wanted the property back! it's all very confusing an any advice on what we can do or where we stand would be appreciated.
shortly after that we heard from his solictor
I am a tenant, having recently missed rent payment thanks to hsbc who I am still fighting, arrears was due to the landlord. we never once said he would not get it but even after obtaining proof of our payments made he has decided we must have forged it!!
he then demanded he would only accept full or reasonable sized payments for it which we tried to oblige with finding a loan but were unable to acquire. it was at that point I enquired about our deposit which we had never heard anything of since the start of the tenancy (which he informed us he had spent on his bills for the property). I asked about using it to address any remaining arrears at the end of the tenancy (2 months time away at that point) so we knew how much to try and pay til then.. he refused many times to give me details on the money and saying it was referred to his solicitor. eventually after much persuasion he told me that the money was with his girlfriends father! and that he will be taking the money due in arrears to county court... I was quite happy with this as we nver said we woulnt pay it and understand him wanting to have a legally binding payment plan. but this wasn't the end of it...
shortly after we received paperwork from his solictor seeking repossesion of the property and stating he will be going for eviction from the first the following month apparently due to us not showing willingness to pay any more rent.. a bit odd considering we had agreed he or a representative could collect the rent in cash on door that month.
not long after that we recieved a further letter from his solicitor offering the chance to vacate the property at the end of that month before eviction proceedings began saying the landlord is fed up of the situation and offering this if we wish, at which point the arrears will still be owed and will firstly be taken out the deposit after delapidations and the rest owed, but no time frames indicated. we received the letter midmonth with 2 weeks to find a property if we wanted. we decided as he wanted the property back and we were thoroughly fed up of the constant issues during the tenancy, that we would make every effort to oblige and end the situation. we initially didn't say we were going to take it directly to him incase we couldn't find anywhere, our landlord has a nasty habbit of twisting things and if had said we were trying that it would have somehow been taken as us saying we had accepted as found somewhere. we couldn't risk potentially being turfed out cause he mistrued what we said.
after finding somewhere we informed him with one of the two weeks remaining.. it was at this point he said the offer was soley dependant on the money being paid in full in cash on the door! which later he added more conditions to when we tried to contest that his solictors letter had not states this and considering he was taking the arrears to county court anyway that it made no sense! having sought advise we were told our assumptions based on the solicitors letter was correct and having made arrangements to mov we had to take it. we informed our landlord we were vacating and he now refuses to accept the property back and was going to hold us to the full tenancy for the remaining month and half.
So 12 hours after we left he was at the property changing the locks and putting up abandonment notices in the windows stuck to the interior sides. he was claiming to some neighbours that he had no idea we had left in an attempt to try and obtain abandoment statements.
he now appears to no longer be pursuing eviction despite considering us still in occupation and has said he will be demanding it all be paid in court.. personally I believe he is just trying to get more money from us and didn't expect we would be capable of taking the offer with only 2 weeks to arrange new housing and now doesn't want to accept it after making it clear he just wanted the property back! it's all very confusing an any advice on what we can do or where we stand would be appreciated.
shortly after that we heard from his solictor
68
meka wrote this on 2010-08-07 09:42:22
well further update to the above... we went and visited the solicitor at his office. he informed us that what we had taken from his letter (saying only that we could vacate and then the money would still be owed however no demand of it being be immediately as a condition taking the offer) was infect correct!! he had told our landlord to cut his losses, regain his property and then just seek the money rightly owed that we had tried to make arrangements to do.. the solictor then told us that he has since 'washed his hands' of the situation and is now no longer dealing with the property. however directly told us that he believed we have done the right thing. So our landlord has been ignoring the advice, running under his own steam and claiming that he has been getting continual advice from his solictor on him keeping us in the property.
having spoken with his solictor and finding this isn't actually true I'm a bit more puzzled as to the mindset of our landlord. but happy in the knowledge even his own solictor believes what we ended up having to do was right!
having spoken with his solictor and finding this isn't actually true I'm a bit more puzzled as to the mindset of our landlord. but happy in the knowledge even his own solictor believes what we ended up having to do was right!
69
cneajna wrote this on 2010-08-11 01:39:01
Hi, I have question.
I am a tenant and my tenancy agreement will end on 27 th of October. I was planning to stay until that date. However, today someone threw bunch of stones into my flat (it is a ground floor) me and my friend get hurt. I called the police and there is a official report.I do not want to stay at this flat anymore and I want to move out asap. Do you think I can move out and collect my total deposit back?
I am a tenant and my tenancy agreement will end on 27 th of October. I was planning to stay until that date. However, today someone threw bunch of stones into my flat (it is a ground floor) me and my friend get hurt. I called the police and there is a official report.I do not want to stay at this flat anymore and I want to move out asap. Do you think I can move out and collect my total deposit back?
70
paul wrote this on 2010-08-12 13:59:33
I have a questuion and I hope you can answer it,I have paid in full for a 1 year agreement but do to my sepration of my wife I am forced to move. They have found a new tennet and they have signed a contract but the landlord wont give me my back my six months money untill the new tennents move in because he said "what if they dont move in I will be out of pocket"
71
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