Rental agreement - can we cut it short?

[allwork18]

Evening all, just need a little help around this.
We rent a property on an assured shorthold tenancy agreement and have done for the past 3 years. good tenants, no real issues.

We have been thinking about buying a house and have been saving up. We have most of our deposit, and have found the ideal house for us. The problem here is that we have a new tenancy agreement that kicks in in 3 weeks time and is for 12 months.

I can't see a break clause in the agreement though it does say for the landlord to give notice he can give us 2 months notice prior to the end of the agreement that he wants us to vacate. He and a relative own the property and he mentioned when we did the new agreement that said relative may come back but this wouldn't mean they would want the agreement to be cut short... this has put us under some stress and made us worry as there has also been post arriving here for the relative from overseas (car paperwork and things, we obvously haven't opened it).

That prompted us to start looking at houses and are now interested in making an offer on a house we like.

My question is - what can we do about our tenancy agreement? We don't want to be idiots and mess the landlord about and have rented through him privately for a long time, more than happy to give 2 months' notice and help him facilitate viewings and look for new tenants. Is there any way this would be a way out for us?

Also, what do we do about the property we want to buy? When would be the best time to tell the landlord, as we obviously don't want to spend money on solicitors and surveys, get close to exchange and then find we have to pay 11 months rent on our rental, we can't afford that and the mortgage on the new house.

What's the best way of handling this, it's stressing me out so much!

Thank you x

Have you actually signed a new AST for 12 months? If you haven't signed then don't. Your tenancy will automatically become a statutory periodic tenancy which you can give one month's notice to end. The LL has to give you two months' notice.

Have you signed the new agreement. If not then don’t. Speak to the landlord and explain why and aim for a statutory periodic. . When tenants have told me early that they are hoping to buy, they have been able to keep me up to speed of the purchase and we have been able to agree move out date.

If you have just signed a new contract speak to the landlord and explain about how the uncertainty has affected you. They may still be happy to work with you. (I would, my only proviso being that I would expect the tenant to cover and excess agent commission I had paid.)

If they don’t, seek advice from Shelter or similar. Even with a contract I dont think the landlord can legally hold you to a 12month contract.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_tenants_can_end_a_fixed_term_tenancy