Here is a question to the blog clinic from Alastair (not his real name), who is a landlord.
I have a fixed-term tenancy lasting until October 2023. I moved in with my friend in October 2021, but my friend moved out and found a replacement in July 2022. The replacement has had his girlfriend living over every single night (keeping her shoes and toiletries here but not other belongings) and is unwilling to compromise on having his girlfriend over for a set number of nights a week.
I want to get out of the tenancy early, but the agent has said I cannot find a replacement tenant because I am the only original tenant remaining from when the tenancy was first signed. The agent has said that the only thing I can do is to speak to this replacement tenant and try and get a mutual agreement with him to seek early termination. However, the replacement tenant has so far resisted having any such conversation. The agent has already conducted an inspection but concluded that they didn’t have enough evidence showing the girlfriend lived in, and said that they could not accept any evidence from me (either photo or from CCTV footage) because that would be unfair.
Is there anything I can do to get out of this tenancy?
Answer
When you sign a tenancy agreement, you will be bound by the terms of that agreement until such time as it ends.
With a fixed-term tenancy like this, your liability under the contract can only end if
- There is a ‘break clause’ in the tenancy (which would need the agreement of your co-tenant to activate) or
- If a new tenancy agreement is signed – which would need the agreement of both the current occupier and your landlord (or his agents)
It’s not clear, by the way, whether the current ‘replacement tenant’ actually signed a new tenancy agreement together with you when they moved in July 2022. From what you say it sounds as if they didn’t – in which case, technically, your original friend is still the tenant.
Contrary to what many people think, you cannot end an agreement like this just by moving out. So unless the current ‘replacement tenant’ actually signed a new tenancy agreement with you, the original tenant will remain liable.
What can you do?
It looks to me as if your only option is to persuade the landlord and the current other occupiers, to end this tenancy early. Which, as the other occupiers want to carry on living there, would mean a new tenancy agreement with other tenants.
Your landlord is only likely to agree to do this if you can find someone to replace you, so they can sign a new tenancy agreement with the current occupier and his girlfriend and the replacement tenant you find. With the current shortage of rented property, finding someone should not be hard!
The replacement tenant would have pass referencing with your landlord and will also need to be acceptable to the current ‘replacement tenant’. As they would need to sign the new tenancy agreement along with the new person. You would probably also have to pay some associated costs, which your landlord would be put to by this exercise (although the tenant fees legislation will limit what they are entitled to charge).
Note that unless a new tenancy agreement is signed with different tenants, you will remain liable under the tenancy agreement you have signed until the fixed term ends in October. You will then, at that time, be able to serve a ‘tenant’s notice to quit’ to end the tenancy.