Lease dilemma

Wiggles88

Hi all, I need some advice.

I signed a 1 year lease along with two friends last Monday and on that very Friday my company told me theyre shipping me off to Belgium for a full year.

The way I see it is I have two options. I could a) try to find someone to sublet but time is not on my side and Im not sure how my housemates would feel about that, plus it would effectively leave me homeless when I eventfully do come back.

Or b) I could continue to pay rent and everything else for the year even though I would only be in Ireland an odd weekend here or there. This would give me the security of having a base to return to but again I'm not sure how my housemates/landlord would feel about an absentee tenant plus a years rent for what would amount to a couple of weeks worth of stay in the house throughout the year is a lot of wasted money.

I have no idea what to do and I don't know how I'm going to approach my housemates and landlord about it. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation or have any advice?

murphaph

The LL has signed a lease with the 3 of you as joint tenants. You are all jointly and severally liable for the full rent each month until the end of the lease. The LL isn't obliged to do anything here so anything he does will be a goodwill gesture and he will be only too happy that he gets less wear and tear on his property and full rent. Your housemates shouldn't have any issues wither as the place will be quieter but you should clarify how you're going to split the utility bills if you're only there occasionally. The standing charges should IMO still be split equally among you but the consumed units probably not....but that's something you'd need to clarify with your housemates.

djimi

Realistically speaking this is something that you need to sort with your housemates. In reality the best option is to find someone else to replace you; be it you finding the replacement or your housemates finding someone. It would be up to the landlord to agree to the reassignment, so you would need to find someone suitable.

The only other option is for you all to go to the landlord and see if they will allow you all to terminate the tenancy.

convert

My brother was in a similar situation last year, but he was only transferred for 5 months. He sublet his room for the 5 months (with landlord's permission) and then returned and resumed his tenancy. A year is a much different scenario, though. If it were me, I'd try to reassign my lease, or ask the housemates if they knew anyone who'd like to move in instead of you. It'd be cheaper to book into a hotel anytime you're back rather than paying rent for somewhere for the full year.

Wiggles88

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone. This has been wrecking my head all weekend, I guess that's just the price I have to pay for the job I'm in.

odds_on

Whether you want to continue with the tenancy may also depend on what you will do with your personal belongings. If you have to pack everything up and find a place to store them (parents house ?) may be an issue, especially if you have a carload or more of stuff.