Leaving a rented house before the end of the contract

[BrittaPerry]

We want to move across the country, but our contract is till April. DH has an interview on saturday for a brilliant job in the new town, but even if he doesn't get that, our contacts in the town have told us about several others.

My parents live near the town, we could stay with them short term but it could be awkward, especially with DH being there (me and the kids would be fine I think)

Do we need to sit it out till April? How about if we don't mind losing the deposit? (Obviously getting the deposit back is best, but losing £600 deposit is better than paying £600 a month for a house we don't live in if we have to mve asap)

Hi, IME it depends on the landlord, we had been renting for almost 3 years, and left before the end of the last year.
I phoned the landlords office first and explained why (new baby and lack of space in current house) they were lovely, disappointed to see us leaving but there were no problems and we got our deposit back at check out.

Britta,

I assume you have an assured shorthold tenancy with the fixed term ending in April? Essentially you are contracted to pay the rent until the end of the fixed term. If the landlord does not release you from the contract, you still have to pay the rent, even if you are not living there.

I also assume your deposit is held in a proper scheme? This is therefore a side issue.

I would contact the agent/landlord and ask about the possibility of early surrender (ie giving up the tenancy early). You never know, they might be perfectly happy with that.

contact your landlord and ask. They don't have to let you out, but if you offer to pay the costs of finding a new tenant, and to pay until the new tenant is in, they might agree. And in this case you would get your deposit back.

How about if me and DH split up? We can't afford the rent individually, and claim housing benefit o pay part of it already. Presumably we can't claim for a house where we arent living (if we split, I will move in with my mum with the kids for a couple of months before I find my own place, but would need to laim HB for my new house)

We had this problem when we bought our house. The letting agent allowed us to surrender the contract once they found someone else. Maybe talk to your landlord and see if they will go for that.

Is there a chance you are going to split up?

If both your names are on the tenancy agreement, even if you split up , you are both liable for the rent. The Landlord could potentially claim the whole amount from one of you (if he couldn't contact the other for example). There's a lot of routes that could go down depending on what the landlord does.

If a split is imminant/likely you should talk to someone at the council to see whether they would up the housing benefit to allow you to stay in the house on your own?