Ending a tenancy agreement

mac1st3

mac1st3

mac1st3

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So I'm trying to move out of my current rented property, the tenency agreement was from 30/4/2009 till 29/4/2010, it's now coming to the end of our tenancy and we don't want to continue living here (read I don't want to), and apparently the landlord/letting agency are saying that for us to move out, we must give written notice 2 months prior to the date we sdhall be leaving

it does state in our contract:

"This agreement may be terminated by either party giving to the other at least two months notice in writing any time after the first four months of the tenancy such notice not to expire until after six months from the commencement date of this agreement as specified in caluse two above"

(clause 2 above is, in short, stating that as an assured shorthold tenancy and under sections of the housing act, the landlord can re-claim the property)

there's a discrepency in the agreement on our side where it states that the rent will be paid on the 28th/29th of each month, but they set the direct debit up so it goes out on the 25th/26th each month, not massive but hoping this plays in my favour.

so basically, am I stuck here for another two months, despite the contract ending at the end of april?

obviously I'll be looking into CAB and such, but if anyone has any experience on this from either a landlord/tenant side, it would be much appreciated, need to get out of here before I kill someone :)
 
if you were looking at getting out so much then you should have looked at ending the contract at the earliest point. unfortunately you are likely to be paying up until the point where you are contractually agreed to do so.

however, surely a new agreement was drawn up and sent to you a couple of months before the end of contract, so that you knew that the time was coming?
 
Direct debit does not help you, that is common as it takes several days for a dd to clear.

Read contracts in the future and you are stuffed, the contract does not end. Just like mobile phones/sky and the rest, they roll on untill you inform them.
 
2 months? Crikey, that is a lot. All of my places have been a month max and with my last place I just let them know (whilst in the month leading up to the end of the contract) of my intention to leave. I guess I've always been with decent/understanding agencies.

I suppose, though, a contract is a contract but 2 months does seem unreasonable. However, you should have been sent a new contract to sign surely? This has been usual practice for me.
 
What is the issue, the contract states 2 months notice which is fairly normal. Give them the notice, then move out? :confused:
 
I just renewed my tenancy thing and before I did, was just sent an e-mail asking if I want to renew and if I don't respond in a reasonable time, they'l assume it's a 'No' and put it on the market. E-mail was sent when a little more than a month was left on the agreement. I also have a 2 month clause but when it came to the year end, that didn't seem to matter.
 
Well, I was under the impression that this clause was there should we wish to leave the contract early, I assumed that once the term of the tenancy was up, we'd have to renew it as opposed to formally state we wanted out, they did an inspection maybe a month ago at which point we stated that we would not be renewing, but obviously that wasn't in writing.

the main issue is that the contract doesn't state either way that it will automatically be renewed, it states that it will be terminated on the 29th april 2010, as I assumed it would be more of a way of we'd have to formally state that we *were* renewing

Guess I'll just have to suck it up and postpone my plans of moving :/
 
Your contract doesn't just 'end' after 6 months really, it just becomes a rolling contract. I've never know the notice period be more than 1 month though. Although it has to be 1 rent month ie if you give notice a couple of days after you paid your rent then you would have to stay (or pay) to the end of the next month.
 
You haven't got a leg to stand on. You are obliged to pay for 2 months notice from the point you inform them that you're leaving, whenever that may be.

A 2 month notice clause is fairly standard.
 
Still not understanding the issue, just give the required notice as agreed when you took the agreement. You can physically move out whenever you please, they are not forcing you to stay there...

:confused:
 
Jez said:
Still not understanding the issue, just give the required notice as agreed when you took the agreement. You can physically move out whenever you please, they are not forcing you to stay there...

:confused:
Click to expand...

the issue is that I can't afford to pay rent on two places at once, I was hoping at the end of the tenancy to move out and leave this town for greater pastures, and while I can physically move out, I'lls till be paying rent on the place for another two months. I thought once the tenancy was up, that was it, we move out, didn't realise it would just continue to roll onto a new agreement that we've not signed, we signed a contract renting the place for the year, that year is (almost) up, I expected to be leaving.

In houses while at uni, the letting agency would just ask us if we were staying, a simple yes/no sufficed (and these were actual agencies)
 
You're getting confused between a break clause and end of tenancy.

The term of the lease ends on the 29th April. This is separate to you having to give two month's notice under a break. It is the responsibility of the landlord or agent to ask you if you want to stay for another year two months prior to end of tenancy to ensure they don't get vacant possession. It is not your responsibility to tell them.

If the tenancy ends on the 29th April and there are no renewal clauses specified you can walk out, end of story. If you want to talk more, give me a call or send me an email.

EDIT - this IS subject to exactly the kind of contract you signed. You may have signed a crap contract. It's hard to know without seeing it, but I've cited what's standard in the middle/high end of the market. At the lower end you'll get worse TA's and more unscrupulous landlords and agents.
 
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you signed a contract to let them know that you will be leaving the property 2 months before you do, regardless of whether at end of contract or mid term.

uni housing is not the same as private rental.

also, i would imagine that you cannot leave the property empty for 2 month without some form of the place being checked regularly
 
Lysander said:
If the tenancy ends on the 29th April and there are no renewal clauses specified you can walk out, end of story. If you want to talk more, give me a call or send me an email.
Click to expand...

is that actually within forum rules? you are offering a service from the forum.
 
Ok, just re-read parts of it, "Clause 2" is not what I had assumed it to be, Clause 2 states:
2. THE TERM
The tenancy will be for a term from and including the thirtieth day of April 2009 ("the Commencement Date") to and including TwentyNinth day of April 2010 ("the Expiration Date").

and then as previously stated in OP

4 Type of Tenancy and Termination

4.2 This Agreement may be terminated by either party giving to the other at least two months notice in writing any time after the first four months of the tenancy such notice not to expire until after six months from the Commencement Date of this agreement as specified in caluse two above

And that's basically word for word, I couldn't see anywhere in there that talks about renewing the agreement, we've had a new contract sent to us, that we've not signed etc, and as I've mentioned, during an inpection in March, the person here was told that we would not be renewing the contract, we had been told that the new contract would include an increase of rent (the new agreement still has the current rent price) but that's probably irrelavent, but we did catagorically state at the time that we would not be renewing our contract with this company/this house, sadly not in writing though
 
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