Landlord looking for rent if they don't find a replacement tenant

Zymurgist

Looking for some advice here,

Have been renting a place since Feb 1st and unfortunately need to move out. I gave my notice to the LL saying i would be moving out at the end of July and they replied saying that if they didn’t find anyone to replace me that I would be on the hook for the rent for the remainder of the 12 month lease.

Is this correct? I thought that if I gave appropriate notice then that would be it.

Stheno

Zymurgist wrote: »

Looking for some advice here,

Have been renting a place since Feb 1st and unfortunately need to move out. I gave my notice to the LL saying i would be moving out at the end of July and they replied saying that if they didn’t find anyone to replace me that I would be on the hook for the rent for the remainder of the 12 month lease.

Is this correct? I thought that if I gave appropriate notice then that would be it.

It is correct yes

Zymurgist

I don't see how that makes any sense tbh.

If they had given me a months notice to get out are they obliged to provide me a place to live for the remainder of the 12 months?

foggy_lad

Yes it is correct but you can also find someone to reassign the lease to and the landlord can accept this other person or not but if they don't accept they can't keep your deposit or charge you anything for the remainder of the lease as they have been provided with an alternative tenant.

salamanca22

You signed a lease guaranteeing the rent for 12 months, if you could just leave anytime you wanted what would be the point of the lease?

You may reassign the lease yourself, the landlord may only charge you rent while the property remains vacant and must find tenants ASAP. If they do not try to find tenants to the best of their ability then you might have recourse, however, unless you are in Dublin or the catchment area there is a risk that the property might lay vacant for a few months which you will have to cover out of your own pocket.

As for them giving you notice to get out whilst in a lease, they can only do that under certain circumstances.

You can also read your lease to check for a break clause and if one exists it might offer a way out of the lease.

Edit: Info on reassigning the lease: http://www.threshold.ie/advice/ending-a-tenancy/getting-someone-to-replace-you/

Zymurgist

salamanca22 wrote: »

You signed a lease guaranteeing the rent for 12 months, if you could just leave anytime you wanted what would be the point of the lease?

I sure did, and did so in good faith with the intention of seeing out the lease. However due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e relocating for work, I cannot see out the lease, nor can i afford to pay rent on this property and another....

I will check the lease tonight and see what provision if any is made for a break clause, and hopefully get myself out of this mess.

jon1981

Zymurgist wrote: »

I sure did, and did so in good faith with the intention of seeing out the lease. However due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e relocating for work, I cannot see out the lease, nor can i afford to pay rent on this property and another....

I will check the lease tonight and see what provision if any is made for a break clause, and hopefully get myself out of this mess.

All of this is moot if you can find a tenant. So the question is, how easy do you reckon it will be to find a tenant, is the place in a sought after location?

salamanca22

Zymurgist wrote: »

I sure did, and did so in good faith with the intention of seeing out the lease. However due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e relocating for work, I cannot see out the lease, nor can i afford to pay rent on this property and another....

Sure your situation has changed, but that is not your landlords problem. You signed a lease and are legally bound to it.

You do have options though. Get to work ASAP on finding a new tenant, an important bit of information is that if your landlord refuses you the ability of finding your own replacement then you are free of your obligations and only owe the landlord a letter of intent to terminate your tenancy and your notice period. It is important to note the notice you already have furnished will not count and you will need to supply another letter of notice if the landlord does in fact refuse your request to reassign and you will owe the full 4 weeks from that date. If they do accept the request to reassign then you will owe rent up to the date that the new tenant signs their lease.

Best of luck.

SteM

Why do people come on to boards.ie for advice and then refuse to believe the advice they have been given? I understand people don't like the answer they get sometimes but still, seems strange to me.

Del2005

Zymurgist wrote: »

I don't see how that makes any sense tbh.

If they had given me a months notice to get out are they obliged to provide me a place to live for the remainder of the 12 months?

If they don't follow the terms of the lease and PRTB guidelines to the letter you can get a huge payout, if you don't there is very little the landlord can do. Where's the sense in that?

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

I would like to add that there is not any legislation, to the best of my knowledge, that states a tenant is obligated to pay rent for the remainder of their tenancy should they choose to terminate early.

<Mod Snip>

Another thing to keep in mind is that going through PTRB or a Solicitor is more of a hassle and possibly waste of money than simply spending time to find a new tenant. Which with the current Dublin market is quite easy.

ted1

Zymurgist wrote: »

Looking for some advice here,

Have been renting a place since Feb 1st and unfortunately need to move out. I gave my notice to the LL saying i would be moving out at the end of July and they replied saying that if they didn’t find anyone to replace me that I would be on the hook for the rent for the remainder of the 12 month lease.

Is this correct? I thought that if I gave appropriate notice then that would be it.

That's correct. What do you think a 12 month lease means?

ted1

Zymurgist wrote: »

I don't see how that makes any sense tbh.

If they had given me a months notice to get out are they obliged to provide me a place to live for the remainder of the 12 months?

They can't give you a months notice.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

ted1 wrote: »

That's correct. What do you think a 12 month lease means?

It means you should try your best to honour that 12 month lease.

<Mod Snip>

dissed doc

If you take a lease for 12 months, YOU have leased it for 12 months, not the landlord.

Find a new tenant that meets the same criteria for the landlord who can take over your lease, or else continue to pay.

Think of it like a mobile phone contract for 12 months, even if you lose or want to get rid of the phone after 4 months, you are liable for the terms of the contract you signed.

UDP

foggy_lad wrote: »

Yes it is correct but you can also find someone to reassign the lease to and the landlord can accept this other person or not but if they don't accept they can't keep your deposit or charge you anything for the remainder of the lease as they have been provided with an alternative tenant.

My understanding is that the current tenant in this situation would not be reassigning the lease but sub-letting the apartment to a new tenant. The current tenant would still be responsible for rent payment and for any damage to the apartment until the lease runs out and it is their responsibility to collect the rent and deposit etc from the new tenant. This can be a risky move to make for both the current tenant and the landlord but if the landlord wants to block it, as already said above, the landlord has to then accept termination of the contract with the current tenant. Re-assigning the lease requires consent from the landlord with no penalties if they refuse as it is effectively the landlord taking on a new tenancy which they are not obliged to do.

SteM

UDP wrote: »

My understanding is that the current tenant in this situation would not be reassigning the lease but sub-letting the apartment to a new tenant. The current tenant would still be responsible for rent payment and for any damage to the apartment until the lease runs out and it is their responsibility to collect the rent and deposit etc from the new tenant. This can be a risky move to make for both the current tenant and the landlord but if the landlord wants to block it, as already said above, the landlord has to then accept termination of the contract with the current tenant. Re-assigning the lease requires consent from the landlord with no penalties if they refuse as it is effectively the landlord taking on a new tenancy which they are not obliged to do.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. What has been suggested in this thread is effectively once the OP supplies a landlord with an alternative name to go on the lease then the landlord has to accept that name or look for an alternative at cost to himself.

That certainly wouldn't make sense to me because all the OP would have to do is nominate someone that the landlord would never want in his apartment and he's out of his lease.

FishOnABike

SteM wrote: »

Yeah, I was wondering about this. What has been suggested in this thread is effectively once the OP supplies a landlord with an alternative name to go on the lease then the landlord has to accept that name or look for an alternative at cost to himself.

That certainly wouldn't make sense to me because all the OP would have to do is nominate someone that the landlord would never want in his apartment and he's out of his lease.

It might not make sense to you but that is the law under section 186 of the Residential Tenancy Act 2004.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2004/en/act/pub/0027/sec0186.html#sec186

If the landlord refuses the assignment of the lease the tenant has valid grounds to issue a notice of termination.

The OP should write to the landlord and request permission to assign the lease. If the landlord agrees then look for a replacement tenant and have the lease assigned. If the landlord refuses then issue a notice of termination - it might be worth getting some advice to ensure it is done to the letter of the law as any mistakes could invalidate the notice of termination.

SteM

FishOnABike wrote: »

It might not make sense to you but that is the law under section 186 of the Residential Tenancy Act 2004.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2004/en/act/pub/0027/sec0186.html#sec186

If the landlord refuses the assignment of the lease the tenant has valid grounds to issue a notice of termination.

The OP should write to the landlord and request permission to assign the lease. If the landlord agrees then look for a replacement tenant and have the lease assigned. If the landlord refuses then issue a notice of termination - it might be worth getting some advice to ensure it is done to the letter of the law as any mistakes could invalidate the notice of termination.

So if there were 3 people declaring interest in a property. 2 of them were deemed not suitable by the landlord because they have bad references. The 1 person picked by the landlord signs a lease but then decided they wanted to leave the property after 2 months and nominates one of the other 2 people that were deemed not fit by the landlord in the first place, then the landlord would have to accept that person or let the leaseholder out of the lease without any penalty? What happens if the leaseholder nominates a homeless person that could never afford the rent? Surely there has to be consent between the leaseholder and the landlord as to who the landlord will allow to takeover the lease?

Murt10

If OP is allowed to get out of the lease if he finds someone willing to take it over then I wonder could he nominate a traveller to take up the lease.

If the landlord refused he could be opening himself up to being in trouble for discrimination

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

dissed doc wrote: »

If you take a lease for 12 months, YOU have leased it for 12 months, not the landlord.

Find a new tenant that meets the same criteria for the landlord who can take over your lease, or else continue to pay.

Think of it like a mobile phone contract for 12 months, even if you lose or want to get rid of the phone after 4 months, you are liable for the terms of the contract you signed.

Argh, I don't understand why everyone posting here thinks that signing a contract signs your life away.

Anyone can terminate a contract early, there are however some penalties that will probably apply, secondly, the penalty must be reasonable. Being obligated to pay rent for the remaining lease term is not reasonable.

There are just too many scenarios to consider:

1. You sign a lease for 12 months and get an excellent offer in another country, is PTRB or a landlord going to chase you to another country for rent?

2. You sign a lease for 12 months and one month later get in a car accident and become comatose for 11 months. The contract must be cancelled, do you think its reasonable to expect to pay the remaining 11 months rent?

I can go on and on.

I have no found any record of a tenant being forced to pay the remaining lease term if they terminate early.

Landlords use the "You will have to pay rent for the remaining lease term" as a scare tactic and frankly they should be called out on that.

Penn

SteM wrote: »

So if there were 3 people declaring interest in a property. 2 of them were deemed not suitable by the landlord because they have bad references. The 1 person picked by the landlord signs a lease but then decided they wanted to leave the property after 2 months and nominates one of the other 2 people that were deemed not fit by the landlord in the first place, then the landlord would have to accept that person or let the leaseholder out of the lease without any penalty? What happens if the leaseholder nominates a homeless person that could never afford the rent? Surely there has to be consent between the leaseholder and the landlord as to who the landlord will allow to takeover the lease?

If you sub-let the property, you become their landlord. If for example you sub-let it out to someone who obviously couldn't afford the rent, the landlord would be within their rights to agree to it, which means you would then still be liable to the landlord for the rent. By sub-letting it out, you're taking on the responsibility for getting the rent from the tenant you sub-let it to, and getting it to the owner/landlord. Additionally, if the person you sub-let it to causes damage etc, they're liable for it to you, but you're still liable for it to the landlord.

The landlord's choice is to either accept the person you found, in which case you're liable for the rent, or refuse the person you found, thereby breaking the conditions of the lease.

FishOnABike

Bad Horse wrote: »

By sub-letting it out, you're taking on the responsibility for getting the rent from the tenant you sub-let it to, and getting it to the owner/landlord. Additionally, if the person you sub-let it to causes damage etc, they're liable for it to you, but you're still liable for it to the landlord.

Which is why it is preferable to reassign the lease than sublet.

The landlord does have the option of refusing a request to assign or sublet but in doing so gives the current tenant valid grounds for terminating the lease before the end of the agreed fixed term without any penalty for doing so.

Even if the question of reassigning the lease did not arise the landlord has to minimise any potential losses. In Dublin I'd find it difficult for a landlord to justify anything more than the cost of readvertising and at most an additional month's rent and that's pushing it considering accommodation can be snapped up by the end of the day it's advertised.

dinneenp

In reality the landlord can't do more than keep your deposit (unless he takes legal action but that's costly).

Look at this

Therefore if a tenant ends a 1-year lease tenancy 4 months before the term is due to expire, the tenant is liable under that contract for the rent as it falls due for the remainder of the term unless the landlord succeeds in re-letting the dwelling (although a landlord is required to mitigate his/her loss by re-letting the dwelling as speedily as possible). In such circumstances it is at the landlord's discretion whether or not to retain from the deposit any outstanding rent due under the lease tenancy.

Hollister11

The landlord is entitled to look for rent for the entire 12 months of the lease.
You agreed to pay him X, for the next 12 months, and signed for it.

Just because your circumstances have changed, doesn't give you the right to decide to leave. The landlord can't just tell you leave, when his circumstances change.

FishOnABike

Hollister11 wrote: »

The landlord is entitled to look for rent for the entire 12 months of the lease.
You agreed to pay him X, for the next 12 months, and signed for it.

Just because your circumstances have changed, doesn't give you the right to decide to leave. The landlord can't just tell you leave, when his circumstances change.

The tenant is entitled to request reassignment of the lease or to sublet (I'd say reassigning it is preferable from a tenant's perspective). If the landlord refuses to allow the tenant to reassign or sublet the tenant can issue notice under section 186 of the Residential Tenancy Act 2004 http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2004/...86.html#sec186

If notice is properly given with the required notice period under section 66 http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2004/en/act/pub/0027/sec0066.html#sec66 i.e. 28 days if the tenancy is less than 6 months at the time notice is given or 35 days if between six months and one year.

In the above circumstances there is no penalty or further liability for rent on the tenant.

dinneenp wrote: »

In reality the landlord can't do more than keep your deposit (unless he takes legal action but that's costly).

Look at this

Therefore if a tenant ends a 1-year lease tenancy 4 months before the term is due to expire, the tenant is liable under that contract for the rent as it falls due for the remainder of the term unless the landlord succeeds in re-letting the dwelling (although a landlord is required to mitigate his/her loss by re-letting the dwelling as speedily as possible). In such circumstances it is at the landlord's discretion whether or not to retain from the deposit any outstanding rent due under the lease tenancy.

Even so the landlord can only keep as much of the deposit as is necessary to cover advertising and any loss of rent due to vacancy. As I said, in Dublin it would be difficult to justify more than the cost of advertising plus one month's rent.

Requesting to reassign the lease avoids the possibility of a the deposit being held.

If the landlord refuses to reassign the lease the tenant can issue a notice of termination under section 186 of the Residential Tenancy Act 2004 and leave without penalty or further liability for rent.

If the landlord agrees to reassign the lease the tenant can look for a new tenant to reassign the lease to with the minimal vacancy and is entitled to the return of their deposit.

Lux23

I had to break a lease in December, my father died and he was paying a portion of the rent for me so I just couldn't manage it. I lost the deposit, but the landlord who was in the legal profession himself just let me leave. I know the circumstances were extreme, but many landlords won't bother chasing you for the rent, but forget about getting your deposit back.

Intifada

Why not just ... not pay it?

SteM

Bad Horse wrote: »

If you sub-let the property, you become their landlord. If for example you sub-let it out to someone who obviously couldn't afford the rent, the landlord would be within their rights to agree to it, which means you would then still be liable to the landlord for the rent. By sub-letting it out, you're taking on the responsibility for getting the rent from the tenant you sub-let it to, and getting it to the owner/landlord. Additionally, if the person you sub-let it to causes damage etc, they're liable for it to you, but you're still liable for it to the landlord.

The landlord's choice is to either accept the person you found, in which case you're liable for the rent, or refuse the person you found, thereby breaking the conditions of the lease.

I never mentioned subletting though.

FishOnABike

Intifada wrote: »

Why not just ... not pay it?

I'm sure most people don't have the equivalent of six month's rent lying around to gift to a stranger. If you have PM me

The Residential Tenancy Act regulates the area and prescribes a legal and fair way to deal with circumstances where it may be necessary to end a fixed term lease before the end of the fixed term by way of assignment, subletting or allowing the landlord recover reasonable expenses associated with having to re-advertise and re-let the property. It balances the obligations and rights of both landlord and tenant.

OP is perfectly within their rights here to request permission to assign the lease and issue notice of termination if the request is refused.

The landlord is within their rights to allow the lease to be assigned or choose to re-let the property themselves but can't have it both ways.

suchafunkymonke

Its a 12 month lease. These means you agree to pay for and lease the property for a minimum of 12 months and the landlord agrees to allow you to do so and to keep the property habitable.

You cannot sub-let based on a normal tenancy agreement. If you need to end a tenancy early, then you can agree terms with the landlord to terminate the contract by mutual agreement. This is usually aided by the tenant helping the landlord find a replacement (which usually costs the landlord money).

You can't just get up and leave because X, Y or Z has happened in your life. If you do, the landlord can keep your deposit and also claim the remainder of the rent due from you. The notice period is there to give notice of intention to vacate the property one you are beyond the minimum agreed term, not during it.