Ending tenancy agreement before term

abacus70

I rented an apartment in January for 12 months. I'm paying the rent monthly and I also paid a 1-month rent deposit.
A few days ago I found out that I'll move abroad with my job, therefore I'll leave Ireland in August. I'm very sorry that I have to end the tenancy contract earlier than agreed, but this is the situation.
What are the consequences of ending the contract earlier? Could you please let me know what shall I do?
Thank you!

Dav010

Legally you are responsible for rent up to the end of the fixed term on your lease, so in theory the LL can open a dispute with the RTB and even go legal to force you to pay. In reality, that won’t happen, you might lose your deposit but chances are the LL will be able to re-let it fairly quickly if it’s in an area where there is demand. Just phone your LL, explain the situation and give the required notice.

Marcusm

Dav010 wrote: »

Legally you are responsible for rent up to the end of the fixed term on your lease, so in theory the LL can open a dispute with the RTB and even go legal to force you to pay. In reality, that won’t happen, you might lose your deposit but chances are the LL will be able to re-let it fairly quickly if it’s in an area where there is demand. Just phone your LL, explain the situation and give the required notice.

In any claim, the landlord would have to establish that it has met its common law duty to mitigate any loss arising. That would have to be established before any claim for lost rent. On this one, absent an ability to reley, the balance shifts in favour of the tenant.

dennyk

As said, you could end up being responsible for the rent for the duration of your lease period, if the landlord is unable to re-let the property. You will almost certainly lose your deposit as well, if you break your lease.

However, there is a way out for you; you can find a new tenant yourself to take over your lease via assignment and propose that assignment to the landlord. If the landlord refuses your request to assign the lease, you can then give notice to terminate the tenancy without penalty, regardless of the fixed term. Just remember that you'll still have to give the statutory notice to end the tenancy if the landlord does say no (likely 35 days in this case, based on the timing), and you'd be responsible for the rent until the end of the notice period or until the property is re-let, whichever comes first, so take that into account in your timing.

The above article also talks about subletting, but if you are moving out of the country, you do *not* want to ask to sublet, on the off chance that the landlord agrees to it; it would be a major hassle for you, as you would still be considered the tenant and would be responsible for payment of rent to the landlord (whether your subtenant pays you or not) and for any damage your subletter does to the property. With an assignment, the new party actually becomes the tenant and you no longer have anything to do with the tenancy whatsoever. Assignment is generally always preferred unless you plan to return to the property yourself and take up your tenancy again within a short time...

The_Conductor

Communication is key.
Talk to the landlord.
99 times out of a hundred, they won't have an issue with you leaving early.
There really isn't any great point in exploring the various possible problems that may arise- in the vast preponderance of cases, the landlord will most probably listen to you and agree a move out date suitable for both of you.

I'm firmly in the camp of not looking for possible issues that don't yet exist.

abacus70

Thank you all for your very useful comments.
I'll contact the landlord and try to solve this in an amicable way.

Samuel T. Cogley

Assigning the lease (you finding a replacement tenant) might be an option.