Here is a question to the blog clinic from Paul (not his real name) who is a tenant
We are renting a property for the last 3 years. The current agreement contains 2 month notice break clause. We served this notice to vacate the house.
Can I vacate the property any time before the end date and pay the liable rent?
Do I need to hold the property until last day and come back on the last day to vacate the house?
What are the tenants rights on this situation?
Answer
Your landlord can’t force you to remain living in the property if you want to leave, or ‘refuse permission’ for you to vacate. Its all about the rent that you pay.
So if you want to move out before the end of your notice period thats fine so long as you pay the landlord the rent he is entitled to up to the end of your notice period.
If you want to move out early, notify the landlord in good time so that a check out report can be arranged before you go, but make it clear to the landlord that you accept that you are liable to pay rent until the end of your notice period.
Or until the end of the fixed term if you are moving out before your fixed term has ended.
Then once you have moved out, return the keys to the landlord or his agent along with any remaining rent outstanding and confirm (in writing) that you have now vacated.
If your landlord fails to arrange for a checkout inspection at or before the time you leave, you will then be able to put him to proof that any damage was done before you vacated, if your landlord seeks to make deductions from your deposit which you do not agree with.
Tenant moved early by paying all the rent dues until end of notice period and very soon landlord let the property to someone else. Can the landlord keep the rent from two tenants for the same period?
or
Does he need to return the rent to the previous tenant?
Please clarify..
Thanks,
A LL cannot accept rent for the same property for the same time from 2 different (legal) tenants.
If you retain your tenancy and simply vacate, you are still the legal tenant, and have rights to sole occupancy.
HOWEVER.
If when you vacate, you agree an early surrender, then your tenancy ends. Tehe payment you made is simply part of the terms of the surrender and not your ‘rent’.
In this case the Landlord can relet the property straight away.
The issue from the landlord’s point of view is that if he accepts the keys AND agree to carry out a checkout inspection when the tenant vacates then, arguably, he has accepted the surrender of the tenancy, which ends then and there.
In general, the tenant is responsible for damages until the end of the tenancy even if he vacates earlier. I am not convinced that sending keys back would lessen that in any way.
As for re-letting before end of notice: This is unwise if the tenant has not offered or agreed to surrender the tenancy early because he could then right claim unlawful eviction.
If the surrender is agreed then there is no obligation to refund the rent for the ongoing and last period unless this was explicitly agreed.
If the tenant leaves early does he still not remain responsible for the property, e.g. if there were a leak etc.
Most tenancy agreements say the tenant must not do anything to inviolate the landlords building insurance, most building insurance says the property must not be unoccupied for more than 30 days.
Likewise for keeping the heating running in the properly.
If the tenancy agreement says ‘the tenant must not do anything to invalidate the Landlords Insurance’ the landlord would need to provide a copy of the policy.
If the agreement says the property must not be left unoccupied for more than XX days, the tenant must notify the LL of this.
I would have considered adding to the answer that the tenant should accept that he is still liable for any ongoing charges until the end of his contract such as Council Tax and Utility Bills, (standing charges in particular ) etc?? and that the LL cannot double dip–ie if LL does accept formal surrender and take possession and relet the property LL should refund rent that outgoing tenant paid for the period and absolve him from ongoing liabilities.
I see that has been discussed above and the issue is — does the LL have to accept surrender of the tenancy just on payment of rent due.( and per Ivans comment is the ‘rent’ payment of rent or just an exit fee–??)
There are multiple considerations to take into account.
Council tax is a big issue for LLs now that most authorities have no exemption periods for empty properties.
When the outgoing tenant vacates a lot of authorities are looking to invoice the person in possession of the property at midnight. If the LL is not proposing to let the property until the actual contract date is past there will be a period where the LA will be invoicing the LL for what should be the tenants contracted liability??
LAs tend to go with the physical presence not the contracted liability. A big headache for Landlords.
Agreed, and this is where the surrender document needs to be clear.
The situation should be simple enough if there is no surrender document. The tenant has simply paid their rent in advance and remains liable.
Conversely they are still the legal tenant and notice needs to be served for viewings and no tenant to move into the property until the current tenancy expires. If the property is sought after, this is just a head ache for the LL.
The Surrender option is going to be more attractive to the LL in such an instance as they immediately regain legal possesion, are free to market the property and move new tenants in. The agreement just needs to stipulate that The LL accepts the surrender of the tenancy and all legal obligation on behalf of the tenant are transferred to the LL, in exchange for £— fee, paid or payable by XXth Month.
Where the property is in a supply outweighing demand area, the LL is better placed to keep the tenant on until the end of the contract, but accept their notice that the property will be empty. The tenants could ofcourse go ahead and change the locks until the end of the tenancy as a security precaution, which would mean no viewings. So the LL is unable to market and will still have a void period.
The solution I found works best (being a tenant I was ofcourse happy) was a reduction in rent. I negotiated 50% deduction, in my final month. In exchange for viewings between 9-5 montday to friday. I was not inconvenienced as i was at work anyway, and the reduction was well received. Since these tenants are not in situ, a reduction could mean viewings at any time, and the reduction could even be 99% of the rent, in exchange for them keeping up utility payments etc. Thereby not having any rent to refund once a suitable tenant is found.
As is always the case, negotiation is best.
Most tenancy agreements say the tenant must allow viewings. Therefore the landlord can sue for the cost of any voids due to the tenant not allowing viewings.