Need to break 1 year lease - advice

ThunderousRage

Hello.

I am currently renting a house and am roughly 3 months into a 1 year lease. Unfortunately my health has rapidly declined over the last month and I lost my job as I was (and still am) unable to work.

I am able to give a months notice but that is as far as I can go. My parents are letting myself, girlfriend and our 4 month old baby move in with them but neither they nor I would have the money to pay the remaining 9 months of rent.

If I forfeit my deposit.. could the landlord still pursue me for the remaining 9 months? Were would I stand legally on this?

Thanks in advance, as I am really worried about this as I want to protect my family.

djimi

You need to look into reassigning the remainder of your lease. Its been described in detail in this forum numerous times so have a search for full details but the jist of it is you approach the landlord about reassignment and with their consent (they cant really deny you permission or else you can break the lease immediately and keep full deposit) you then go and find a new tenant to take over the remainder of your lease. All the expense of finding the new tenant is on you, and you are liable for any shortfall in rent for the remainder of the lease should the new tenant end up paying less than you do now.

D3PO

as Djimi has said you need to reassign the lease or else you are libel for the remaining rent for the 1 year period.

Are you entitled to RA ?

Have you checked the legality of losing your job due to being sick that doesn't sound legal, you should be entitled to claim social welfare payments and yes your company have no obligation to add to this but they cannot just let you go because you are sick.

Bigcheeze

Firstly, explain the situation to the landlord and ask if they'll release you from the lease without penalty, if you give a month's notice. If not, go the reassignment route as outlined above.

A smart landlord will generally be happier to release you than having a tenant fall in to arrears or doing a runner, particularly if the property is easy to rent. Chasing you for rent if you have no money is a no-win situation.

ThunderousRage

D3PO wrote: »

as Djimi has said you need to reassign the lease or else you are libel for the remaining rent for the 1 year period.

Are you entitled to RA ?

Have you checked the legality of losing your job due to being sick that doesn't sound legal, you should be entitled to claim social welfare payments and yes your company have no obligation to add to this but they cannot just let you go because you are sick.

I run my own business you see and had work as a contractor. So I believe they had every right to do so.

I'm wondering how common it is that landlords bring people to court over the remaining term? I'm in the west of Ireland

D3PO

ThunderousRage wrote: »

I run my own business you see and had work as a contractor. So I believe they had every right to do so.

I'm wondering how common it is that landlords bring people to court over the remaining term? I'm in the west of Ireland

its uncommon to bring people to court but legally they could. Most likely situation is they let you leave and you forfeit your deposit.

if you desperately need that deposit then you need to reassign the lease, if not ring the LL explain the situation and see if he will terminate the lease without penalty or at worst with forfeiture of the deposit.

ThunderousRage

D3PO wrote: »

its uncommon to bring people to court but legally they could. Most likely situation is they let you leave and you forfeit your deposit.

if you desperately need that deposit then you need to reassign the lease, if not ring the LL explain the situation and see if he will terminate the lease without penalty or at worst with forfeiture of the deposit.

Thanks for the info. I could live without the deposit, it's just the "bringing to court" thing that concerns me. I heard somewhere that there has been no case in Ireland for bringing someone to court for this on record here yet?

I'll ring the landlord directly (rather than the agent) and see how I get on.

D3PO

ThunderousRage wrote: »

Thanks for the info. I could live without the deposit, it's just the "bringing to court" thing that concerns me. I heard somewhere that there has been no case in Ireland for bringing someone to court for this on record here yet?

There absolutely have been PRTB determinations against a tenant breaking a lease early. At this point the tenant would have been ordered to pay whatever was outstanding (which would be any lost rent between moving out date and the LL getting a new tenant plus any additional expenses / lost rent due to lower rent being received)

At this point the tenant should pay it would only go to court if the tenant refused to and the landlord then required court enforcement of the determination order

I'll ring the landlord directly (rather than the agent) and see how I get on.

as above but its not true to say that a tenant has never been chased for owed rent via legal channels. However if you peruse such tribunal details on the PRTB website you generally find these are high end rentals 2k plus per month average rent type dwellings.

ThunderousRage

D3PO wrote: »

as above but its not true to say that a tenant has never been chased for owed rent via legal channels. However if you peruse such tribunal details on the PRTB website you generally find these are high end rentals 2k plus per month average rent type dwellings.

Got it, luckily this rental is only 550 euro per month, so low end.

Moonbeam

my tenant rang me yesterday to break her lease half way through,she had a very genuine reason so I asked for 1 months notice.
Talk to your landlord.

djimi

Should you walk away from the lease and forfeit your deposit the landlord is entitled to persue you for lost rent, however they must make best effort to mitigate their loss, meaning they must make a genuine attempt to re-let the property as quickly as possible. Depending on the area this may or may not be a problem; in parts of the west re-letting a property might take time even with the best intentions. Whether they would bother persuing you for what would most likely amount to 1-2 months rent at the most is questionable, but nobody can say for certain that they would not.

ThunderousRage

Thanks for all the advice.

I rang the landlord yesterday and told him that I could stay until the end of july at latest if it would help him out and he was very happy about that. He said he had no problem with me breaking the lease early as he could understand the situation and also said he is happy to return my deposit.

I guess there still are some kind and great people about

I am very very relieved.

earlytobed

I did the same with a tenant. I gave him back his deposit and he found me new tenants.
A lot can be achieved if people are reasonable

odds_on

From a landlord's point of view:
When a lease is assigned, there is no new PRTB registration for the landlord. It is the same tenancy asgreement but with a change of tenant.

If the tenancy is not assigned, a new tenancy will come into force and this must be a new registration with the PRTB.

Thus, if a landlord accepts a tenants notice of termination after 3 months of the tenancy, it is in the best interests, financially, to go for an assignment rather than a new tenancy agreement.