Ending rental contract early

Bacchus

Hi,
Quick question for ye. Two friends of mine and I have recently(this week) moved into an apartment. With all the students about and a rapidly decreasing amount of time to vacate our previous accommodation we had to settle for this place. We basically had very little choice and the apartment seemed alright so we took it. Problem is, it's not until you move in somewhere till you find out all the annoying little things about a place.
To cut to the chase. We're not happy in the apartment. We've only just moved in and we haven't yet signed the lease, we have deposit + months rent paid. Right now, house hunting is still a pain so we were thinking of staying here for a month or two and then handing in 28 days notice. Are we within our rights to do this? Can we expect to get our deposit back.

Thanks,
Bacchus

Afuera

Are you intending to sign the lease? If you don't, then you run the risk of finding yourself out on your ear after 28 days notice from the landlord.

If you do sign a fixed term lease then you won't be able to break it unless there are specific clauses to allow it. I.E. You can't just give your 28 days notice to terminate the lease.

If you offer to assign the lease to somebody else or sublet it and the landlord refuses then you are allowed break a fixed term lease (provided you give notice).

Bacchus

Thanks for the reply. We will sign a lease pending refurbishments the landlord has assured us will be done. Actually, if everything he says will be done is done we'll probably be happy to stay but it looks unlikely. All talk, no action ya know.
On breaking the lease though, I found this on the Threshold site...

Can the tenant leave before the end of the lease?
If a tenant wants to leave before the end of the lease (and there is no break clause), the tenant needs to:

* Find someone else to replace the existing tenant in the lease;
* Write to the landlord, requesting permission to assign the lease to this new person.

If the landlord refuses consent, the tenant can give the landlord notice of termination and leave. The notice period is calculated by how long the tenant has lived there.

That's pretty much what you said. So by my understanding now. If in a few months we decide we want to move out, we first approach the landlord and offer to find replacements. If this is refused, we can simply hand in our notice. Does this affect our deposit in any way? Would we be liable for any more rent?

Afuera

Bacchus wrote:

If in a few months we decide we want to move out, we first approach the landlord and offer to find replacements. If this is refused, we can simply hand in our notice. Does this affect our deposit in any way? Would we be liable for any more rent?

These are good questions and where I feel it becomes more of a grey area. I can only explain to you how I think it works, so I'm open to correction on this...

Personally, I think that since the lease has been broken legitimately, you are not liable for any more rent past the time you stayed there (including the notice period). I think that the landlord would be entitled to hold on to the deposit though, since they will incur unexpected expenses while trying to rent the property out again. Maybe there are other posters out there that have anecdotal stories that would support/discredit this?

Bacchus

Thanks for your help Afuera. I did some more googling and came across this on citizensinformation.ie

Deposits

Landlords will usually ask for a deposit, which might be a week or month's rent. If you are receiving social welfare payments, your Community Welfare Officer may help with paying a deposit, although you may have to pay some of it yourself. Make sure you get a receipt for any deposit you pay. You may lose your deposit if:

* You leave without giving proper notice or leave before the end of a fixed term lease
* You cause damage to the accommodation beyond normal wear and tear
* You leave with bills or rent unpaid.

It's not really clear here what qualifies as "proper notice" so it's hard to be certain if the 28 days notice (after attempting to find replacements for the landlord) is what they are referring to here.

Afuera

Bacchus wrote:

It's not really clear here what qualifies as "proper notice" so it's hard to be certain if the 28 days notice (after attempting to find replacements for the landlord) is what they are referring to here.

Yes, I presume that this is what they mean by "proper notice". The actual number of days notice required depends on how long the tenancy has been in place (the minimum notice is 28 days), and it might have to be in writing to the landlord.

You may lose your deposit if:

* You leave without giving proper notice or leave before the end of a fixed term lease

While you may be giving proper notice, you would still be leaving before the end of the fixed term lease. This alone seems to be possible grounds for keeping the deposit, regardless of whether you have legitimately terminated the fixed term lease.