I have been renting a ground floor flat in a converted house since 1st December 2008. I was on various fixed leases up until 1st June 2011 after which the new letting agency didn't bother sending out the lease requested (six months as before), meaning that I am now automatically on a Part 4 lease.
The flat is not well insulated against sound and the new tenants who moved in above me earlier this year are noisier than previous ones, so long-term I am thinking of moving. As I am on a Part 4 lease, my understanding is that 56 days (eight weeks) is the required amount of notice I need to give the landlord. However, most properties that I see advertised are available to 'move in immediately'. From a future landlord's perspective, s/he obviously won't want to lose out on money holding a property without rent being paid, and my current landlord equally won't want a 'void' period. It means that, at minimum in a worse case scenario, I would have to pay two months rent to each.
Is there any way of trying to reduce this cost? Do landlords ever do deals with tenants, whereby they'll hold a property for a fee with rent being required then from a certain date? If my current flat is occupied within the two months, am I legally protected against having to pay for the occupied period or it this purely down to landlord goodwill (e.g., with a fixed-term lease, unless there's some reason no sane person would disallow, you are liable for the full amount when you break a lease, irrespective of whether the property is then occupied afterwards)? I do have some good means of advertising the property for the landlord via my work so I could offer to do this to generate goodwill, assuming I'd receive some goodwill in return.
Finally, I presume Part 4 lease regulations kick in from when you first occupy the property as opposed to from when you first move to a Part 4 lease (December 1st 2008 v June 1st 2011)? Also, my understanding is that once four years have elapsed, it's treated as a new four years again. So if I'm flat-hunting from December 1st, is it 28 days notice again?
Thanks for any help with this. If I do end up moving, I want to do the right thing by the landlord and would do my best to give as much notice as possible, but neither do I want to needlessly go over and above requirements and lose money in the process.