How To End A Tenancy Early
Sometimes, landlords or tenants want to end a tenancy early. However, in UK landlord and tenant law, there are rules to follow when it comes to doing this legally for both parties.
In this guide, we’ll cover how both landlords and tenants can go about ending a tenancy early in the proper way, and what you should do if you come up against a problem.
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Ending a tenancy early for tenants
When you want to end a tenancy, you have to give notice to your landlord.
If you don’t do this in the right way, you might end up having to pay rent even after you’ve packed your bags, as well as having to pay other bills like council tax.
When and how much notice you should give depends on what kind of tenancy you have and what your tenancy agreement says.
If you aren’t able to give the right amount of notice, there might be a workaround. In the first instance, you can chat with your landlord about “surrendering your tenancy” - which basically means ending your tenancy earlier than was previously agreed.
Ending a fixed term tenancy early
Fixed term tenancies have an end date. Tenants have to pay their rent until at least the end of this fixed term tenancy to avoid problems.
You can end a fixed term tenancy early if your agreement has something called a “break clause”.
A break clause might say you can end your tenancy 6 months after it starts if you give 1 month’s notice. Some break clauses might have extra conditions, like no rent arrears.
If you want to end a tenancy early and your fixed term tenancy has a break clause, it’s really important to read and understand it so you know exactly how and when you can end your tenancy. If you don’t stick to the rules, you might not be able to make an early exit.
Ending a periodic tenancy early
If you’ve got a periodic tenancy (i.e the tenancy goes from month to month or week to week) you can end the tenancy by giving your landlord the right amount of notice. Easy, peasy!
Ending a joint tenancy early
Regardless of whether your joint tenancy is fixed term or periodic, it’s important to understand that when a tenancy ends, everyone must move out.
If you’re in a fixed joint tenancy (i.e you share the property with others) you usually need the thumbs up from your landlord and all the other tenants.
Even in the event that your tenancy has a break clause, everyone must agree to end the tenancy (unless it says otherwise in the tenancy agreement).
For periodic joint tenancies, you don’t need to get the green light from any of the other tenants unless it says so in the tenancy agreement. But regardless, when you go, everyone goes. It’s a package deal.
But what if other joint tenants want to stay?
If you’re in a joint tenancy and other tenants want to stay, using a break clause probably isn’t the right move because it could end the rights of those who do want to stay.
Tenants who want to stay need to negotiate a new agreement with the landlord.
If that’s not possible, you might have to find a replacement joint tenant.
Ending a tenancy due to changes in your circumstances
If you want to end a tenancy early because your situation has changed, like you’ve got a new job and you need to move, and you don’t have a break clause, the only way to do it is by negotiation with your landlord. This is known as surrendering your tenancy.
The best way to do this is to contact your landlord in writing and clearly explain why you want to leave. You can also suggest that you will help find a replacement tenant to help the process move along quickly.
Ending a tenancy early because of problems with your landlord
If your landlord hasn’t fulfilled their obligations, like not protecting your deposit or refusing to do repairs, it’s possible to use this to end your tenancy early by saying you won’t take legal action if they let you end the tenancy early.
Ending a tenancy early by unwinding a tenancy agreement
If you feel you signed a tenancy agreement under the impression of misleading information, like the property was advertised as furnished but when you move in there’s no furniture, it’s possible to unwind the tenancy agreement.
You can only claim the right to unwind within 90 days of the start of your tenancy.
How much notice do you have to give to end a tenancy?
Fixed term tenancy
If your fixed term tenancy has a break clause, the notice period is what the break clause says.
If you don’t have a break clause, you can’t give notice to leave before the end of your fixed term tenancy.
You don’t need to give notice to leave on the last day of your fixed term. Usually, if you want to continue living in the property, the tenancy will switch to a periodic tenancy automatically.
Periodic tenancy (if you don’t live with your landlord)
If you are on a periodic tenancy, how much notice you need to give to end the tenancy depends on how your tenancy runs.
Typically how much notice you have to give is in line with the rental period. For example, if it’s from month to month, you should give a month’s notice.
Periodic tenancy (if you live with your landlord)
You don’t need to give any notice unless your tenancy agreement says so. You can simply tell your landlord when you’re going to leave and that’s it.
