# Are tenants legally allowed break lease



## z106 (26 Jan 2008)

My sister has been renting a place for the last 8 month sbut now wants to leave.
She originally sgned a 12 month contract.

She has given the landlord a months notice but it looks like he isn't happy and she reckons he will possibly keep her deposit as compensation.

So - legally is she allowed break the lease giving a months notice ?

Is the landlord entitled to come after her for the outstading 4 months rent? (Obviously he presumably wouldn't bother - just wondering what the actual legalities are)

She has said the contract she signed doesn't make much reference to the tenant breaking the lease.


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## Thomas22 (26 Jan 2008)

*Re: Are tenants legally allowed break lese*

According to threshold

*6. Can the tenant leave before the end of the lease?
*If a tenant wants to leave before the end of the lease (and there is no break clause), the tenant needs to:
Find someone else to replace the existing tenant in the lease;
Write to the landlord, requesting permission to assign the lease to this new person.
If the landlord refuses consent, the tenant can give the landlord notice of termination and leave. The notice period is calculated by how long the tenant has lived there.



And on the notice periods...

 The period of notice will depend on the duration of the tenancy. Duration of Tenancy                               Notice by Landlord
Less than 6 months                                    28 days
6 or more months but less than 1 year        35 days
1 year or more but less than 2 years           42 days
2 years or more but less than 3 years         56 days
3 years or more but less than 4 years         84 days
4 or more years                                        112 days


And on deposits...

*Deposits*

The landlord must return promptly any deposit paid by the tenant. The deposit may be retained or deductions made where there are 1) rent arrears or 2) costs incurred to repair damage above normal wear and tear. Advertising or reletting costs are not normally valid reasons for withholding a deposit. It is illegal for a landlord to hold tenant's goods in lieu of money owed.
 If you feel that your deposit has been unfairly withheld, you can make an application to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB).


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## Afuera (26 Jan 2008)

*Re: Are tenants legally allowed break lese*



qwertyuiop said:


> legally is she allowed break the lease giving a months notice ?


No. She should have tried to get the fixed term lease assigned to someone else first.



qwertyuiop said:


> Is the landlord entitled to come after her for the outstading 4 months rent? (Obviously he presumably wouldn't bother - just wondering what the actual legalities are)


Yes, he's entitled to do this. I think he can do it through the PRTB for a nominal fee of €25.


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## z106 (26 Jan 2008)

*Re: Are tenants legally allowed break lese*



Afuera said:


> No. She should have tried to get the fixed term lease assigned to someone else first.
> 
> 
> Yes, he's entitled to do this. I think he can do it through the PRTB for a nominal fee of €25.


 
This seems to contradict thomas22s post.

Afuera/ Thomas22 - where are yee getting your infor from?


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## Afuera (26 Jan 2008)

*Re: Are tenants legally allowed break lese*



qwertyuiop said:


> This seems to contradict thomas22s post.
> 
> Afuera/ Thomas22 - where are yee getting your infor from?


qwertyuiop, I don't see any contradiction. Thomas22's post shows how she should have tried to assign the lease to someone else (which she didn't do). It also states that the deposit can be witheld for rent arrears. She's agreed to rent the property for 12 months so she could be held liable for it all.

The PRTB have plenty of documentation available if you want to look into it further:
http://www.prtb.ie/downloads.htm


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## Brendan Burgess (26 Jan 2008)

Hi Aufera

Thomas 22 said, which really surprised me:



> If the landlord refuses consent, the tenant can give the landlord notice of termination and leave. The notice period is calculated by how long the tenant has lived there.



This implies that the OP has to give just 35 days' notice and can walk away from their lease. I doubt very much that this is the situation. 

You say, and I think you are right:


> She's agreed to rent the property for 12 months so she could be held liable for it all.



The only way these two statements agree is that if she finds another tenant and the landlord refuses consent to assign, she can just walk away with 35 days' notice. 

Then a tenant could find a very uncreditworthy individual whom she knows that the landlord will not want as a tenant. The landlord refuses and the OP is out of her lease? 

Seems strange to me. 

Brendan


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## Thomas22 (26 Jan 2008)

Brendan said:


> Hi Aufera
> 
> Thomas 22 said, which really surprised me:
> 
> ...



Well I've source by information from http://www.threshold.ie/ where has Aufera sourced his information.


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## Afuera (27 Jan 2008)

Brendan said:


> The only way these two statements agree is that if she finds another tenant and the landlord refuses consent to assign, she can just walk away with 35 days' notice.


Brendan, you're correct. I should have explained that point further.

In the OPs case, the tenant made no attempt to assign the lease to someone else so they are still bound by the terms of the lease. If they had tried to assign it beforehand then they would have been able to break the lease legitimately (whether the landlord agreed to assign it or not).




Brendan said:


> Then a tenant could find a very uncreditworthy individual whom she knows that the landlord will not want as a tenant. The landlord refuses and the OP is out of her lease?


Yes, this is my understanding of how it works and I agree that it is rather strange. There is no protection for the landlord here.




Thomas22 said:


> Well I've source by information from http://www.threshold.ie/ where has Aufera sourced his information.


From the PRTB. I think the information from threshold is conditional that the tenants attempts to assign the fixed-term lease first before trying to break it.


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## muesli (1 Jul 2008)

Hi,
I am in the same position as the OP in that I may need to break my lease early. In my case, I went through a letting agent. In my case, is it up to me to find a new tenant as described above ? Should I tell the letting agent before I have a replacement tennant ? Many thanks for any feedback on the above.
m.


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## bugler (1 Jul 2008)

You're better off just broaching it with the agent first of all. Not all agents or landlords are dead set on enforcing leases. My last agent took a looser approach, happy to let us move out as long as we gave adequate notice. 

The agent/LL may well prefer to do the search for a new tenant themselves. If they don't then yes, it comes back to you.


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## Danmo (12 Sep 2008)

I need to break a 12 month lease with no break clause. The lease states that if I break it before the 12 months is up that I am liable for the rent for the rest of the period and I forfeit my deposit. Am I right in saying that if I put a request in writing to the agency asking if I can reassign the lease and they refuse that I can leave? I am 4 months into the lease. I don't want to get into a long drawn out dispute about this...I potentially have someone suitable who would take it over....


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## j26 (12 Sep 2008)

Danmo said:


> I need to break a 12 month lease with no break clause. The lease states that if I break it before the 12 months is up that I am liable for the rent for the rest of the period and I forfeit my deposit. Am I right in saying that if I put a request in writing to the agency asking if I can reassign the lease and they refuse that I can leave? I am 4 months into the lease. I don't want to get into a long drawn out dispute about this...I potentially have someone suitable who would take it over....



You need to ask for permission to assign it to a specific person, i.e. you advertise for someone to take over the remaining time, get someone and then ask for permission.  If they refuse you can terminate the tenancy.


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## Danmo (12 Sep 2008)

Thanks - but doesn't that seem like a lot of hard work for nothing? Wouldn't it be better to get agreement in prinicple first and then find someone?


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## rmelly (12 Sep 2008)

Danmo said:


> Thanks - but doesn't that seem like a lot of hard work for nothing? Wouldn't it be better to get agreement in prinicple first and then find someone?


 
It's the 'someone' they are agreeing to - not the principle. They are basically given the opportunity to vet the second person the same way they vetted you.


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## Danmo (12 Sep 2008)

Thanks a lot. Fingers crossed!


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