To ask about cutting short tenancy agreements? Anyone manage it?

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Sorry this isn’t a proper AIBU, just hoping for traffic.

I’m wondering if anyone has managed to get a landlord to agree to ending their private rental agreement mid contract? DH and I are suddenly thinking we might be able to buy in a year or so, but we’re 6 months into a 3 year rental agreement (have been here 2 years in total already) we have a break clause at 18 months but having to aim for exactly one year for now will be extremely tight.

I’m wondering if nearer the time we can ask our landlords if they’d be willing to cut the contract at a different point. I know ultimately we can ask and they can say no, but wondering if anyone has had any luck doing this or has any any advice?

Thanks

So your break point is in 12 months and you think you'll have a deposit in 10 months. Then you'll have to find an affordable and suitable house, get in a chain with all the other buyers and sellers etc.

Assess your situation at the end of the year, if you have the deposit then you can start a discussion with the agent about the possibility of breaking the lease at the 18 month part, or moving onto a rolling 2 month notice arrangement.

IMO, landlords are primarily concerned with continuity of occupation and rent payments. So the most useful thing for the LL is advance warning to start looking for a tenant, It's worse for the LL to get to 18 months and then you say that you're off immediately, rather than to say that you'd like to stay another couple of months.

Is it a one-sided break point - i.e. you can give notice, but he can't? Or could he throw you out if he gets wind that you may want to leave before the end of 3 years.

@Queenfreak I’ve never yet had an awful landlord it’s the giving notice out of the normal range of the contract and the issue of a moveable end date thanks to not being able to control buying dates

@NoMorePoliticsPlease yeh it’s long but pretty common around here. When we first moved in we only did 18 months and had to really push for it. 3 years was also good security for us when buying seemed at least that far off, I’m not knocking that security. It’s a family sized home for lower than the average so could have set us for a while if we needed it

We have agreed to this in the past if tenants cover releting fees.
But haven't got our landlords to agree for us.

@filka yes that’s correct. The getting into a chain will be a nightmare but that’ll be the case whatever point we end the contract. Only so many options when moving from renting to buying, we won’t be the first or last to have to navigate that.
Notice can be given on both sides but I can’t remember the exact wording. There would always be notice, we’d never say ‘we’re off in a week’. Yes they may give us notice, though no idea how they’d get wind of us thinking of leaving in advance. But if so we’d deal with it.

@midwestspring what do you mean by ‘haven’t got our landlords to agree for us?’

@Magpiefeather that’s good to know. It is long but not unusual here, and as I’ve said to others was actually good security for us when it looked like we might be renting for a long time. They’re less likely to just let you go onto a rolling contract round here.
I’m hopeful they will be amenable when the time comes, even a couple more months after the break clause would be hugely helpful

Just that we are landlords and rent ourselves. Our landlords weren't flexible when we asked.

Landlord here. I've agreed to this various times when tenants have changed jobs or got married or whatever. Just asked them to pay the next 4-6 weeks and allow a morning of viewings. Occasionally they've got a friend lined up to take on the tenancy, in which case I'm more flexible.

@midwestspring ah I see!

@Porcupineinwaiting good to know, thank you. Hopefully our landlords are as reasonable as you