Moving out before tenancy ends

[inabizzlefam]

I am currently renting privately, my tenancy contract ends on September 11th. however, I have always known this property was only ever going to be a stepping stone to a more permenant house and I have just found the perfect property, It is the right size and is a stones throw from DCs school. However, the tenancy starts end of July. What do I lose or have to pay as a penalty for moving out of current house before tenancy ends?

You are contractually bound to pay rent up until the expiration of the tenancy. If you want to vacate early see if your tenancy agreement will permit it ( is there a break clause?) or otherwise suggest you speak to the landlord / letting agent and see whether they will agree a sum lesser than the total remaining debt to the end of the term if you vacate early. They could however insist on full payment.

There's no 'penalty' as such but you'll have to pay the rent up to 11th September....

In theory you have to pay. However, most landlords will be prepared to put the house on the market early and see if they can find somebody to take over your tenancy at an earlier point. This is in line with the principle that even if you are in breach of your agreement, they still have to mitigate their loss by trying to find somebody else to reduce the loss they have actually suffered. The best advice I can give you is to be upfront as early as possible, and see what compromise arrangement you can come to.

Talk to your landlord. If they find a tenant quickly they may be willing to release you from the contract. Allowing a tenant to end an AST early can be advantageous if a landlord gets a new tenant paying more rent.

A landlord cannot start marketing a property early unless the tenant is in agreement. In the event of a tenant buggering off and paying no rent the landlord would still have to follow eviction proceedings. In practice a landlord would just wait for the contract to end. However pissing off a landlord is not a good way to get a decent reference.