Want to leave tenancy early, should I look for new place first or tell landlord I want to leave first?

[Tenant84]

What is the most sensible thing to do if I want to leave a tenancy early due to noisy neighbours?
Should I look for a new place first and secure it and then tell landlord that I am leaving early?
Or do I ask landlord first if I can break the tenancy early before even looking for a new place? Also if I ask to leave the tenancy early, would this conversation be classed as giving notice? As I wouldn't have anywhere to go yet and would only want to give official notice once I had found a new place.

Solicitor and landlord - I would advise you take some legal training in how to be a landlord. NRLA are a good starting point.

Housing Act 1988 governs Assured Tenancys, of which AST is a type.

www.nrla.org.uk/resources/creating-your-tenancy/guide-to-contractual-and-periodic-tenancies

What do you mean by find a place? If you sign a contact for the new place then you still have to pay your current landlord 5 months rent

So are you saying that our LA and what we have seen is the past is wrong???

Are you saying that a LL cannot insist on obtaining another AST of lets say the standard market norm of 12 months?

As I clearly stated, both parties have to agree but we've done that, ie NO rolling agreement of recent years

Therefore, what is your point??

Thanks but no need for the link as we are model LL's and not just our LA has told us that but more importantly our T's!!

When we were landlords one tenant wanted to leave early and the letting agent suggested that we let them if they covered the cost of remarketing the property, it was cheaper for them then paying rent until the end of the contract.

Not sure what the current legality of doing that would be now?

The law is saying that. S5 of the Housing Act 1988.

Does your letting agent charge you for renewing tenancy agreements?

yes!!!

We often insist that its another fixed term but as the T's have been there a long time, we could be flexible but the do charge us for another 12 months AST

So - I was right all along as I said, we always go for another AST and if the T disagreed, we'dact in our best interests

So, what is your point, I'm confused!!

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator do read the link.

You appear to be under the misapprehension that a landlord has rights to end a tenancy. You don't. Only the tenant can terminate their tenancy or a court when you apply and are granted an order of possession or warrant of possession (bailiffs) if the tenant doesnt leave. So if you can't end a tenancy, why would you need to issue a new one at the end of the fixed term?

Some landlords and tenants like the certainty of a fixed term. Letting Agents like their landlords to have a new fixed term because they charge you for it.

My point is that you need to know (at least roughly) the statutory framework within which you are carrying out business.

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator I'm sure you're a lovely landlord. There are lots of us about contrary to popular opinion 😀

No - it looks like you are.

Before the end of any AST, we can serve a Section 21 seeking possession at the end of the the AST and that is a fact

Another fact is, we decide if we want another 12 months or rolling agreement and the T can either agree or not agree - we can if we wish then process a Section 21 should we not want another AST or rolling agreement

I'm still not sure what your point is

The bottom line, I was right all along and you have miscomprehended my initial post here

I'll let you have the last word, if you wish

Enjoy you weekend!! 😀

As you know there are plenty of good LL as well as T's and a few on both sides not so good. Sadly, I've seen the handiwork of a bad T at a family members BTL and it cost them thousands to put right and thousands in lost rent

Enjoy😀

Oh I hear you totally on the noise situation as I have similar issues where I live.
But it was a final offer from the council and though not as attractive as getting a council place, I have had to hold on to it.
It depends what the noise is? What accommodation you have.
If I have missed that, apologies, just trying to work out where the noise is coming from, internally within the same building or from either side.

Again depending on what it is, you could speak to the noise team at your local council.

FFS - read my post again!! We action what we want before the end of the AST - IE as stated in our posts!! The T then can decide if to accept our new AST or not -FACT

FACT - we can action a Seciton 21 towards the end of the AST as within the required timescales if we want them out

This is why we are LL's and you are not.

Improtantly, we hire a good LA and leave it to them, we just tell them a couple of months before the end of an AST to see what the T's are saying

Simples!!

And so what do you do once you've served the s21, it expires, and yet your tenant is still living in the property? Because a s21 is a notice, it doesn't end the tenancy . . .

@WillLiveLife I give up. If Op can't be bothered to Google it, read the link, and wishes to remain in ignorance so be it.

It's important these things are correctly stated which is why I picked @DistinguishedSocialCommentator up on it. She's being had by her letting agent though, who she has confirmed is charging her to issue a new tenancy each year 😂

Yes you might be liable for the next 5 months of rent. There’s no guarantee your LL will let you out of the AST early.

On a fixed term AST, you are liable for the rent, so unless the ll agrees to you breaking the contract, you are legally obliged to pay the rent for the rest of the term. You obviously don’t have to agree to the tenancy rolling over and not all landlords will go to a rolling anyway, they might prefer a 6/12 month further tenancy.

@Tenant84 Do you have an update on this at all? In the same situation except we have found a new place and don’t want to give it up as it took almost 2 months to find anywhere as rentals are snatched up so quickly where we live.

We haven’t heard back from the landlord yet and I’m anxiously waiting for a phone call that hopefully will happen tomorrow. We are due our third baby and just cannot live in this house anymore when baby arrives. It’s a fairly small 2 bedroom house. Pregnancy was very unexpected and has come as a shock. Also have finally won an appeal for our son with additional needs to attend a specialist school in September which is right next to the new house, it’s perfect.

We have lived here for just over 3 years so hoping this helps as we’ve been great tenants who’ve never caused any trouble for our landlord. We’ve happily made improvements to the house with our own money as we wanted to treat it like a home. When we moved in the place was a wreck, we even fixed electrical faults ourselves (well brother in law did as he’s an electrician) replaced taps that were covered in limescale, replaced a bath panel that was covered in the previous tenants hair dye. Ergh, I just will be devastated to have to end things on bad terms.