Walking away from lease???

[JonX2C]

Hi guys

So were currently looking for a short term let, now I read something in the paer this week how a private landlord had tennants that split up and ended up moving half way through their tennancy and also ended up not paying their last months rent, which was in effect their deposit.

They managed to dissapear.

Now I just want to kow what the legal standing is on this.

We cant get anyone to agree a short term let with us for reasonable money, so I wanted to know how easy / difficult it is to walk away from a private let. Has anyone had any experience with this.

Its a pretty bad thing to do any I would obviously be peed if it happened to me, but it seems like our only option

[bigandclever]

JonX2C said:

Its a pretty bad thing to do any I would obviously be peed if it happened to me, but it seems like our only option

Well it's not, is it. You could change your budget or your expectations/desires/requirements, for instance. I've also rented where, due to particular circumstances, I may have needed to leave at short notice - I got certain break clauses put in the contracts that cost me extra on the rent (to cover the landlord's risk) but allowed me to leave fairly with 1 month's notice.

Personally, if I were the landlord, I would pursue you round the world till I got whatever monies you owed me back. No-one can completely disappear

[touching cloth]

The legal standing is that you are breaking the terms of the contract and would be liable, the landlord will set a price per month based upon it being over a certain term. As you are finding out shorter terms are more expensive as it's more hassle for the landlord - you can't just cherry pick the bits you want of each option and force someone to accept it.

[BERGS2]

Apologies for the partial thread hi-jack - but whilst you knowledgable types are around on the matter...

We've come to the end of a years AST (assured shorthold tenancy) on our house - the contract had stipulates that re-newal is subject to RPI inflation for the secont year (fair enough) - but also that signing the second years contract incurrs a £150 fee payable to the letting agent.

The letting agent is st and we pay the landlord direct - is there any reason why on the expiry of the initial contract we shouldn't just revert to a normal periodic tenancy, having increased the rent as per the contract?

cheers in advance!

[Wings]

BERGS2 said:

Apologies for the partial thread hi-jack - but whilst you knowledgable types are around on the matter...

We've come to the end of a years AST (assured shorthold tenancy) on our house - the contract had stipulates that re-newal is subject to RPI inflation for the secont year (fair enough) - but also that signing the second years contract incurrs a £150 fee payable to the letting agent.

The letting agent is st and we pay the landlord direct - is there any reason why on the expiry of the initial contract we shouldn't just revert to a normal periodic tenancy, having increased the rent as per the contract?

cheers in advance!

You can try to revert the Assured Shorthold Tenancy to a Periodic Tenancy, although either the letting agents or the landlord might insist on a new AST being drafted up and signed. In the event you refuse the renewal AST, then the worse the letting agents can do is serve you with 2 months Notice to terminate the existing tenancy.