International Student Wants to Surrender Tenancy

International Student Wants to Surrender Tenancy

10:25 AM, 20th October 2014, About 10 years ago 2

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Dear readers,

I am a current tenant who is settling to terminate a 6 month contract with the landlord due to the property’s unsuitable conditions for myself. I have found a replacement tenant and will surrender my tenancy once the landlord approves the new tenant. I am aware there will be deductions made from my deposit (lease cancelation, inventory check fees, an administration fee the landlord is charging me for himself) however my problem is that because I am an international student I had to pay 6 months upfront. I need to get 5 months and 1 week back now, but no such clause is included in the contract.

Is it possible to add an additional clause? International Student Wants to Surrender Tenancy

Would love the help!

Thanks.

Jiah


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Comments

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

10:29 AM, 20th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Hello Jiah

Presumably you are aware that your landlord is not compelled to accept the new tenant that you have found and neither is he compelled to accept your tenancy surrender?

Assuming that your landlord has agreed to these things then he should also be agreeable to a "reasonable" refund of the up-front rent you have paid.

I suggest you get everything written down and counter-signed by your landlord before you move out.

Your landlord is within his right to charge you "reasonable" fees as outlined in your original post but cannot charge you rent once he has accepted your tenancy surrender.

An alternative to surrender would be to assign the tenancy with mutual consent.
.

David Mensah

10:13 AM, 25th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi Jian,

Tessa Shepperson has just written a blog post on a related topic --
http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2014/10/23/can-this-landlord-refuse-to-allow-the-tenants-to-end-the-tenancy-early/

One way for a tenant to ‘get out’ of a tenancy is to assign it to someone else. Landlords will not normally want this as they prefer to choose who is in their property. So tenancy agreements invariably prohibit assignment.

The Office of Fair Trading (whose function has now been taken over by the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA)) published some guidance on Unfair Terms in tenancy agreements in 2005. [which say this is OK under certain circumstances, which may or may not apply to you]

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