Tenant leaving early

Tenants often request to terminate and leave early from a fixed term tenancy and may negotiate with their landlord to be released from their contract, but this is a matter for personal agreement between landlord and tenant. If one of the Tenants wishes to leave and the others remain see Surrender in Part

Landlords may or may not oblige by attempting to re-let early if the tenant agrees to pay out of pocket expenses - these should be agreed in advance. Alternatively, the tenant himself may find an alternative tenant, though the landlord will wish to carry out their standard vetting or screening procedures and again may well claim additional expenses.

It is all about managing the transition, you can sue a tenant for leaving early but the landlord must endeavour to mitigate loss. So probably wiser to work with the tenant. Let them leave and assist in the smooth transaction better than incurring a rent void.

Your tenancy agreement should contain a clause such as 7.6 in our Tenancy Agreement

"Leaving Early – Only with the Landlord's or his agent's prior consent and subject to certain conditions that may include paying the Landlord's reasonable costs associated with re-letting the premises and paying the Rent until a new tenant moves in, the Tenant may be allowed to surrender or give up this tenancy before it could otherwise lawfully be ended."

Notice by tenants

What must a tenant do if he or she wants to give up his or her tenancy?

There is no provision in existing legislation requiring a tenant to give notice to their landlord should they wish to end the tenancy. A tenant's obligation to give notice, the amount of notice they need to give and the way in which this notice is served, is a matter for the landlord and the tenant to agree between them at the outset of the tenancy and such information should be included in a written tenancy agreement.

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