How much notice do I need to give?

lilylvsgoge

I recently have been offered social housing .... and excepted we are getting the keys next week , at the moment we are in private rent, we have a 12 month contract that is up on the 26th of jan .... how much notice will i have to give my land lord ?? Thanks

Victor

What does the lease say? In theory, you should have given notice already.

Your best route would seem to be to assign the lease to someone else, but that person would reasonably need to be as a good a tenant as you.

Talk to the landlord and see what they think.

TheBoffin

Assuming you are in the property for at least 6 months but less than 12 months then 28 days notice is standard practice unless otherwise stated in your contract.

You are perfectly entitled to close contract early and move out immediately by notifying the landlord and on the basis that you pay the rent for the 28 day notice period. Some landlords will accept retention of the deposit as payment.

D3PO

TheBoffin wrote: »

Assuming you are in the property for at least 6 months but less than 12 months then 28 days notice is standard practice unless otherwise stated in your contract.

You are perfectly entitled to close contract early and move out immediately by notifying the landlord and on the basis that you pay the rent for the 28 day notice period. Some landlords will accept retention of the deposit as payment.

Did you even read the opening post ? The OP has a 12 month lease. So the first paragraph is completely incorrect. Unless a break clause is stated in the contract the OP must stay until the date in Jan (26th) the contract expires, unless they reassign the lease to somebody else, or are refused the right to do so by the landlord.

OP best bet is to check your lease then contact the LL and see where you get too. It will be difficult if not impossible to find somebody to reassign the lease to. Very few people want to move into a property at this time of the year NOV - DEC especially ones that may be required to move out again in Jan depending on the LL's whims.

Speak to the LL see what he/she says most likely scenario you will be allowed leave but your deposit will be retained to cover rental shortfall whilst the LL seeks a new tenant.

TheBoffin

D3PO wrote: »

Did you even read the opening post ? The OP has a 12 month lease. So the first paragraph is completely incorrect. Unless a break clause is stated in the contract the OP must stay until the date in Jan (26th) the contract expires, unless they reassign the lease to somebody else, or are refused the right to do so by the landlord.

OP best bet is to check your lease then contact the LL and see where you get too. It will be difficult if not impossible to find somebody to reassign the lease to. Very few people want to move into a property at this time of the year NOV - DEC especially ones that may be required to move out again in Jan depending on the LL's whims.

Speak to the LL see what he/she says most likely scenario you will be allowed leave but your deposit will be retained to cover rental shortfall whilst the LL seeks a new tenant.

I did read the post and I did note the 12 month contract. What you may not be aware of is some landlords sign a contract with tenants each year. If the terms of notice are not set out in the contract then by default it goes to the PRTB minimum notice terms (assuming landlord is registered with PRTB) in such a case the notice period is set from the move in date and not the rolling contract date.

Also tenant can move out of the house whenever they wish so long as they agree to buy out the remaining contract or notice period, in this case either paying a months rent or having the landlord keep the deposit if agreeable.

djimi

TheBoffin wrote: »

I did read the post and I did note the 12 month contract. What you may not be aware of is some landlords sign a contract with tenants each year. If the terms of notice are not set out in the contract then by default it goes to the PRTB minimum notice terms (assuming landlord is registered with PRTB) in such a case the notice period is set from the move in date and not the rolling contract date.

The part 4 notice periods to not apply during a fixed term lease. Only if the lease specifies a break clause can the tenant break the lease early. Other than that, they must look to reassign.

D3PO

TheBoffin wrote: »

I did read the post and I did note the 12 month contract. What you may not be aware of is some landlords sign a contract with tenants each year. If the terms of notice are not set out in the contract then by default it goes to the PRTB minimum notice terms (assuming landlord is registered with PRTB) in such a case the notice period is set from the move in date and not the rolling contract date.

.

Wrong so so wrong. Where did you pick up this nugget of incorrect information.

A fixed term lease is just that a fixed lease and unless it has a break clause in it no notice period exists during the term of the lease.

The amount of misinformation that floats around on here is scary.

TheBoffin

Note the OP says CONTRACT and not LEASE which you keep referring to.

If it is a LEASE or fixed term contract (which i admit it does appear to be one) then yes, Tenant is responsible until the end date
If it was a standard contract with no fixed term (which do exist), then part 4 notice applies and can be considered a periodic tenancy

Either way, my primary point is, like any other lease, and as I posted before, The tenant can move out of the house whenever they wish so long as they agree to buy out the remaining lease / fixed contract or notice period so long as there is no clause for the property being vacant in the lease/contract

The reality of the situation is neither of us know the facts and are basing replies on assumption. Granted I admit I could have been more specific in my reply.

D3PO

TheBoffin wrote: »

Note the OP says CONTRACT and not LEASE which you keep referring to.

God almighty how pedantic do you want to be ? We all know the OP is referring to a lease.

If it is a LEASE or fixed term contract (which i admit it does appear to be one) then yes, Tenant is responsible until the end date
If it was a standard contract with no fixed term (which do exist), then part 4 notice applies and can be considered a periodic tenancy

If it is a standard contract and not a fixed term lease then its not worth the paper its written on because you cannot sign away your part 4 rights so its worthless. Its also completely irrelevant here as the OP clearly stated they have a 12 month contract aka lease

Either way, my primary point is, like any other lease, and as I posted before, The tenant can move out of the house whenever they wish so long as they agree to buy out the remaining lease / fixed contract or notice period so long as there is no clause for the property being vacant in the lease/contract

If you buy out aka pay all the rent that would be owed for the remainder of the lease of course they can move out whenever they wish that's kinda obvious there is no provision for them to "buy out" a lease by paying less than is due.

The correct mechanism to get out of a lease is to reassign it to somebody else which cannot be refused by the LL although they do have the opportunity to vet the person(s) that would be taking over the lease and make a decision on their suitablility in that regard. However they cannot refuse point blank to allow a lease be reassigned as by doing so the tenant would be entitled to leave prior to the end of their lease if this was done.

The reality of the situation is neither of us know the facts and are basing replies on assumption. Granted I admit I could have been more specific in my reply.

The reality is your moving the goalposts to try and make your point stick when quite frankly you were wrong and just don't have the balls to admit it.

djimi

The tenant does not have to buy out the remainder of the lease necessarily. If you break a lease early then the landlord is entitled to deduct from the deposit to cover lost rent, however they are obliged to mitigate the their losses quickly, so depending on the rental market the landlord might be able to relet quickly, meaning the cost of the vacant period isnt actually that much.

TheBoffin

D3PO wrote: »

The reality is your moving the goalposts to try and make your point stick when quite frankly you were wrong and just don't have the balls to admit it.

If you say so.

D3PO

djimi wrote: »

The tenant does not have to buy out the remainder of the lease necessarily. If you break a lease early then the landlord is entitled to deduct from the deposit to cover lost rent, however they are obliged to mitigate the their losses quickly, so depending on the rental market the landlord might be able to relet quickly, meaning the cost of the vacant period isnt actually that much.

nice to see somebody bar me taking sense in this thread.

kkelliher

lilylvsgoge wrote: »

I recently have been offered social housing .... and excepted we are getting the keys next week , at the moment we are in private rent, we have a 12 month contract that is up on the 26th of jan .... how much notice will i have to give my land lord ?? Thanks

the facts are as follows:

a fixed term lease cannot contain any clauses with any inferior rights on a tenant that the 2004 Act. Its a bit of a grey area in the prtb but generally once you give notice in line with the act there is little chance of any action against you although the landlord may hold onto your deposit as you have left prior to the expiry of your agreement and you also would not have recourse to the prtb.

you appear to be a little over 9 months in occupation. under the act this would require 35 days notice to the landlord but note the loss of the security deposit for leaving prior to the end of your fixed term. it should be noted that the 35 days notice is a statute notice and whereas it can be less by agreement it cannot be anymore.

generally you will find an early discussion with your landlord and an element of common sence should result in an agreement that suits both parties given you are due to end in 3 months anyway.

D3PO

kkelliher wrote: »

the facts are as follows:

a fixed term lease cannot contain any clauses with any inferior rights on a tenant that the 2004 Act. Its a bit of a grey area in the prtb but generally once you give notice in line with the act there is little chance of any action against you although the landlord may hold onto your deposit as you have left prior to the expiry of your agreement and you also would not have recourse to the prtb.

you appear to be a little over 9 months in occupation. under the act this would require 35 days notice to the landlord but note the loss of the security deposit for leaving prior to the end of your fixed term. it should be noted that the 35 days notice is a statute notice and whereas it can be less by agreement it cannot be anymore.

generally you will find an early discussion with your landlord and an element of common sence should result in an agreement that suits both parties given you are due to end in 3 months anyway.

your actually getting confused. You are correct in saying that you cannot sign away your rights. Which means clauses put into a lease may be invalid and have no legal standing for example a lease could not say you must give 6 months notice to vacate the property for example.

However equally the term of a fixed term lease is completely legal and is not superceded by any notice periods mentioned in the RTA for part 4 tenancies.

Off topic but furthermore even if you were right (and your not) a tenant must actually tell a LL that they are invoking their right to Part 4. Failure to do so means any costs incurred as a result of the tenant later on relying on part 4 rules may be awarded against the tenant.

So the end result of this would be the same cost wise to the tenant anyway as the LL must attempt to mitigate their losses in a timely manner for somebody leaving a lease early and therefore the likely costs would be the same anyway.

back on topic a fixed lease is a fixed leae. No break clause then the answer on how you can remove yourself form the lease has been advised. It is by reassignment or agreement by the LL to cancel the lease early only

djimi

kkelliher wrote: »

the facts are as follows:

a fixed term lease cannot contain any clauses with any inferior rights on a tenant that the 2004 Act. Its a bit of a grey area in the prtb but generally once you give notice in line with the act there is little chance of any action against you although the landlord may hold onto your deposit as you have left prior to the expiry of your agreement and you also would not have recourse to the prtb.

you appear to be a little over 9 months in occupation. under the act this would require 35 days notice to the landlord but note the loss of the security deposit for leaving prior to the end of your fixed term. it should be noted that the 35 days notice is a statute notice and whereas it can be less by agreement it cannot be anymore.

generally you will find an early discussion with your landlord and an element of common sence should result in an agreement that suits both parties given you are due to end in 3 months anyway.

It should be pointed out that if you are going to ignore the fixed term lease then how much notice you give is completely irrelevant. There is n notice period under a fixed term lease, so 7 days notice would be just as illegal as 35 days notice (in that neither would actually be valid).

kkelliher

D3PO wrote: »

your actually getting confused. You are correct in saying that you cannot sign away your rights. Which means clauses put into a lease may be invalid and have no legal standing for example a lease could not say you must give 6 months notice to vacate the property for example.

However equally the term of a fixed term lease is completely legal and is not superceded by any notice periods mentioned in the RTA for part 4 tenancies.

Off topic but furthermore even if you were right (and your not) a tenant must actually tell a LL that they are invoking their right to Part 4. Failure to do so means any costs incurred as a result of the tenant later on relying on part 4 rules may be awarded against the tenant.

So the end result of this would be the same cost wise to the tenant anyway as the LL must attempt to mitigate their losses in a timely manner for somebody leaving a lease early and therefore the likely costs would be the same anyway.

back on topic a fixed lease is a fixed leae. No break clause then the answer on how you can remove yourself form the lease has been advised. It is by reassignment or agreement by the LL to cancel the lease early only

if you re-read my post that is what I said. There is an acknowledged grey area in respect to notice periods in the act relating to fixed term leases. notice periods are governed by statute. If the OP wishes to leave irrespective of the reason they must give the notice required under the 2004 act unless the lease allows for a lesser timeframe.

djimi

There's no grey area; when you are covered by a fixed term lease you cannot give notice and leave. The only way out of a fixed term lease is to reassign.

odds_on

kkelliher wrote: »

if you re-read my post that is what I said. There is an acknowledged grey area in respect to notice periods in the act relating to fixed term leases. notice periods are governed by statute. If the OP wishes to leave irrespective of the reason they must give the notice required under the 2004 act unless the lease allows for a lesser timeframe.

As both D3PO and djimi have said, a fixed term lease by its name implies a term of a definite period (usually one year). A tenant has no right to break a legally binding contract except through an assignment of the remainder of the lease agreement. Therefore, there is no such thing as a notice period during a fixed term agreement - even an oral fixed term agreement.

A lesser time frame than that required under the provisions of the RTA 2004 would not be valid in any break clause of a fixed term agreement as that would contravene the tenant's rights to the statutory notice periods.