Lease for 1 year - can tenants exit before

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polo1

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I am just about to rent my property for the 1st time so sorry for what seems like a simple question. If my tenants sign a 1 year lease - do they have the possibility to exit before the year and if so what are the consequences. Do they loose their deposit? I think they will look to buy a property very soon after they move and am just concerned?
 
polo1 said:
I am just about to rent my property for the 1st time so sorry for what seems like a simple question. If my tenants sign a 1 year lease - do they have the possibility to exit before the year and if so what are the consequences. Do they loose their deposit? I think they will look to buy a property very soon after they move and am just concerned?
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Normally a month's notice by either party is ok, you have a months rent so you have a month to get another renter
 
Yes, all they have to do is give you 35(I think, check the prtb website yourself) days notice.
 
I thought along the same lines as Camry. If only a months (give or that on the 6 month thing by the PRTB) notice is required what is the point of signing a 1 year lease? My brother had a situation where 3 different tenants left within in a year and in each case he kept the 1 months deposit, I believe he had it sipulated in the lease. Is he legally allowed do this?
 
I'd also agree with Camry's interpretation. As a tennant with a 12 month lease, I looked into this as well. It appears that the terms of the lease can't be simply overridden by the Part IV protection that applies after 6 months continuous tennancy.

However this is just my interpretation of it. If a tenant felt differently, and left after say 9 months and the landlord withheld the deposit, the tennant could try to bring a small courts claim against the landlord. It would be interesting to see how it was decided.

Hmmm, anyone know if you can search small claims court judgements? Such a case may have already been taken.
 
I don't think it's as clearcut as Camry has suggested. My interpretation of it is that a fixed term lease can be broken if the tenant requests the landlord to assign the lease to someone else or wants to sublet it. Other than that exception though I think that everything else that Camry said stands true.
 
sam h said:
My brother had a situation where 3 different tenants left within in a year and in each case he kept the 1 months deposit, I believe he had it sipulated in the lease. Is he legally allowed do this?
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This sounds like a bit of a grey area to me. If the tenants left all of a sudden, with little or no notice and your brother was left out of pocket, while trying to find other tenants, then I'm presuming he would be entitled to keep the deposit. If the tenants asked him to assign the lease to someone else, which he refused to do, and they then gave adequate notice, I'm not sure he is allowed by law to hold the deposit.
 
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