Hi all. Due to circumstances I have to break my tenancy agreement early. I have 6 months left on the contract. The landlord is asking four months rent to terminate early or around £8000. His reasoning us that I need to reimburse the original letting fee, the new letting fee, inventory, gas certificate and rent until a new tenant is found.
These costs seem unreasonable to me. The original letting fee was gone regardless of me staying or not. The new letting fee, okay, but that’s around £1500 the agent has told me. The other fees are maybe £200 at most. The tenancy fees act states the landlord can not profit from an early termination, but if I take this to the landlord then he can just refuse to release me and hold me to the original contract. So do I have any recourse?
It does seem quite high - but you did sign a legally binding contract, so you don’t have much leverage. The LL would certainly be due a letting fee & inventory check cost & rent until a new tenant is found. This could easily be between 1 & 2 months depending on the market in your area. He does not have to do a new gas safety with a new tenancy.
You could move out & not pay, but if the LL took you to court & won that may affect you future ability to rent or even buy. Perhaps try to negotiate?
I don’t usually charge the full amount to my tenants if they terminate early, but you should be aware of the legal position - and usually say they will only be liable for rent until I get a new tenant which usually happens very fast But I don’t use an agent and don’t have to pay their fees. It is different for landlords that do have an agent as the agent will reclaim these charges from from them.
By law he can reclaim the remaining 6 months rent from you. You signed a contract to for a specified time and agreed to pay rent for that period. So he can always take you to court for that and get a court judgement against you which will make it very difficult for you to rent by or get credit in the future. . If he is offering you to settle for 4 months instead of 6 months I would give this serious consideration. But DO talk to your landlord.
Many landlords are very sympathetic if “due to circumstances” refers to serious illness, redundancy - but not so much if you are changing your mind about jobs , relationships etc. Remember you made an agreement with them to be there for a certain time which got you the property which you are not keeping…