Unable to negotiate surrender of tenancy with landlord - any ideas please?

[SR193]

I have a fixed 12 month AST with an 8 month break clause. I am in the 4th month of my tenancy. I recently bought a house, and would like to surrender my tenancy early. I made my landlord the following offer, which I thought was very reasonable:

• Give 2 months' notice, move out after 1 month to allow new tenant to take over earlier (even though rent would be covered for 2 months), and pay a £1000 penalty fee to put towards re-advertising.

The area I live in is highly sought after and you can get tenants in very quickly. I spoke to the estate agents and they reckon he should be able to get more for rent. I highlighted these points in my email to him. Unfortunately he does not seem to want to let me go and refused the offer I made.

His counter offer was that I pay part of the advertising fee (approx £800-£1000), and continue to pay rent until a new tenant is found. I didnt accept his offer as there would be nothing stopping him from turning down potential tenants and holding out for someone willing to pay significantly more. I could essentially end up paying more than if I just waited till the break clause. I do not entirely trust my landlord based on what the neighbours have said and my own interactions with him.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem, were you able to negotiate a deal? Anyone have any ideas on what I can do/try? I should probably mention that if my landlord takes me to court, I would need to report this immediately to my professional governing body - so I am little stuck with choices.

Please help!

I appreciate I am bound by my contract, which is why I am trying to negotiate out of it, I'm not insisting he let me go without any compensation for him. I do understand that it's a huge cost to the landlord, as I said earlier, he didn't need to pay anything towards my renewal as I had already been with him for a year and he didn't go through an agent this time. I'm asking to leave at 6 months instead of 8 (when break clause takes effect) with me paying a penalty fee for leaving early. He can either let me leave 2 month's early and get £1000 towards advertising. Or I leave at 8 months and he pays the full advertising/re- letting costs by himself.

But if he sees it from a different perspective, as I guess he must do, then my best chance to leave is to find a tenant. Thanks for everyone's input and especially to people who have offered alternative solutions. I will try both of the following:

1. See if he will agree to me finding a tenant through something like OpenRent

1. Go with his preferred agent with me paying part of re-let fees if he agrees in writing that he takes on the first tenant that fits his criteria.

Thank you for your time and advice.

Why would your landlord accept a tenant that you have found?

You've been told numerous times that you are legally bound by the contract. Just accept that.

I would fall about laughing if a tenant told me they were 'finding me a new tenant themselves'. Eh, no.

People are making this out to be more difficult than it needs to be. Put your add up on Open Rent. We don't know the price point of your property, but if it is anything normal, you'll probably get 40 enquiries within 24 hours and feel quite overwhelmed by the plight of so many people looking to rent. You can book back to back appointments to show the property on a day of your choosing. You find our which referencing service your landlord would like to use and what ever other instructions your landlord gives. When people have viewed, you give them these instructions on how to make an offer to your landlord and their next steps. You'll have to pay for the referencing for each of the people that the landlord shortlists. The landlord will want to pick the person(s) that present the best fit for them - possibly based on length of tenancy they will sign up for, rental offer, number of people moving in, credit score, etc. It might not be the first one they reference, so you will have to assume they will reference perhaps 3 or 4. They probably won't go with the one that will move in first (as they might do if the property was vacant) as they have you paying the rent for now, but I would be gobsmacked if they didn't find someone suitable that will move in within the next 6 weeks and you will be done. Congratulations on your purchase!