Hi,

I'm currently renting a flat with Saxton Mee. I have just renewed my contract for the third time and it has about 5 months to run.

The problem is, is that I've seen a flat for sale that I am pretty interested in. The flat is already vacant so if I decided to go ahead the whole process shouldn't take too long.

Does anybody know how easy it is to get out of a rental contract early?

I have a good relationship with my landlady who actually offered to let me take the flat on a month by month contract the last time I renewed, as she knew I was looking to buy, although I turned her down. Also the flat opposite mine (which is exactly the same) rented within a few weeks recently.

The flat that i'm interested in, is also for sale with Saxton Mee - if I approached them to end the contract early do you think that they'd hit me with some massive extra charge?

Does anyone have any experience with this or any reccomendations about what i should do?

Thanks

You have a number of options.

You need to talk about it with your landlady first and she may be willing for you to move out as soon as another tenant can be found.

The main problem is the letting agents. If they were used by your landlady to just find a tenant then I cannot see how it would be a problem for them - they will already have their money.
If, however, they are being paid to run the tenancy then they probably would insist they get all their money. All you can do then is approach them and see if they would accept a replacement tenant, but it still may cost you.
The other possibility is to buy your flat and then rent it out for a few months on a contract. If there is a time overlap you could rent your current flat on a month by month and move into the new one when the contract on it is finished.

You need to bear in mind that buying property can take a few months anyway and by the time it is completed there may not be much time left on your contract.

Thanks for that.

The estate agents are being paid to run the tenancy (not that they've actually done anything!) so they probabely will try and charge us :(

Will keep in mind though that the contract may nearly be over by the time the flat is completed. Also, we know someone who may want to move in which could work in our favour.

thanks for the advice!

you should read your contract, there's usually something in there that allows for one month's notice to be given by either party before moving out/eviction.

Even if you get offer accepted on this flat and it all goes through really smoothly its probably going to be 3 months at least until you can actually move in - unless you are very lucky.

I think if you gave the Estate Agents 3 months notice they would probably be quite amenable to trying to sort things out - in that way I have found its much better to deal with an Estate Agent than directly with the Owner - I have found (apologies for the over generalisation) that Owners who let direct tend to be quite greedy and awkward.

Thanks for the replies.

You are probabely right that it will take a few months to buy the flat - its just that there is no chain involved and the property is already vacant which makes me think that they would want to rush it through.

Will get the contract out later and see what it says although I think my boyfriend has looked before and there is no kind of get out.

We'll have to see !!

Even if there is no chain it can still take months unfortunately. Solicitors drag their feet so much you can be waiting a month just for them to be bothered to do any work

Cool - hopefully getting out of the contract is something that I might not have to worry about then.

Thanks for the help