Breaking a 1 year lease

[a.narain]

Hi guys,

I wanted to know how can I break a year long lease. We moved in 3-months ago and I am the only person with the name on the contract as the main tenant. Additionally, the other people's name was on the contract as recognized tenants.

However, it seems that the people who have moved in with me in the house (4 bedroom, 5 people) will be leaving Singapore before the end of the 1 year lease. That would mean that 2 rooms will be vacant for just 3 months and hence finding somebody to occupy the room for such a short period will be near impossible.

Is it then possible for me to break the lease (by giving almost 6 months notice) without being libel for anything? There is a clause in the contract that reads " If this Agreement should be lawfully terminated by the Tenant before the expiry of the tenancy, the Tenant shall undertake to reimburse the Landlord on a pro-rata basis, the commission of Singapore Dollars Two Thousand Only (S$2,000) paid by the Landlord to Cross Connections Network Pte Ltd for the brokerage services rendered. The Landlord shall be entitled to deduct such refund from the deposit held by the Landlord."

Since I will be giving the landlord sufficient notice and will be willing to pay the above mentioned cost can I break the lease 3 months early?

[x9200]

Hi guys,

I wanted to know how can I break a year long lease. We moved in 3-months ago and I am the only person with the name on the contract as the main tenant. Additionally, the other people's name was on the contract as recognized tenants.

However, it seems that the people who have moved in with me in the house (4 bedroom, 5 people) will be leaving Singapore before the end of the 1 year lease. That would mean that 2 rooms will be vacant for just 3 months and hence finding somebody to occupy the room for such a short period will be near impossible.

Is it then possible for me to break the lease (by giving almost 6 months notice) without being libel for anything? There is a clause in the contract that reads " If this Agreement should be lawfully terminated by the Tenant before the expiry of the tenancy, the Tenant shall undertake to reimburse the Landlord on a pro-rata basis, the commission of Singapore Dollars Two Thousand Only (S$2,000) paid by the Landlord to Cross Connections Network Pte Ltd for the brokerage services rendered. The Landlord shall be entitled to deduct such refund from the deposit held by the Landlord."

Since I will be giving the landlord sufficient notice and will be willing to pay the above mentioned cost can I break the lease 3 months early?

Do you have a clause in your contract allowing you to terminate with a notice? I guess not, so the above clause does not apply to you. Besides, it looks like you sub-let the flat. Was it permitted? By the LL? By HDB (if applicable)? If you had a proper sub-letting agreements in place your co-tenants should take responsibility for their early leaving, now it's your problem and the only way you could do it properly is to mediate with the LL what I personally doubt will be any effective. Especially if he didn't know the flat was sub-let in the first place.

[a.narain]

Hi,
The flat was sublet with he knowledge and permission. He has all the required details of all those who are staying.
However, what I don't understand is that if one can break the lease iLynne why was the above clause inserted?
Can you suggest a way out?

[Strong Eagle]

Look... before you could enforce the clause you quoted you first need to publish the relevant parts of the lease with respect to "lawful termination"... that is, under what circumstances can you terminate the lease. I bet money that losing your sublet tenants is not one of the covered conditions.

I bet... unless you got a very special Singapore lease agreement... that there are only a couple of very unusual reasons you will be able to terminate. Summary... you are stuck with the lease until lease end you and you better start whacking up on the roomies that are deserting you for more cash.

[a.narain]

Oh ok!

[ecureilx]

I bet... unless you got a very special Singapore lease agreement... that there are only a couple of very unusual reasons you will be able to terminate. Summary... you are stuck with the lease until lease end you and you better start whacking up on the roomies that are deserting you for more cash.

Years ago when I had room mates who looked like they may disappear, I got them to sign direct agreement with the LL.

One of them took off and the landlord held back the deposit of that guy.

It's called risk management. And lessons learnt sharing apartment with yourself as main tenant.

As SE says go after the room mates, unless your landlord amicably agrees to an early termination with no penalty.

If you are holding their share of deposit, unless you are very kind hearted, don't return it until they find replacements

[ecureilx]

Hi,
The flat was sublet with he knowledge and permission. He has all the required details of all those who are staying.
However, what I don't understand is that if one can break the lease iLynne why was the above clause inserted?
Can you suggest a way out?

LL needs the info residents to make sure there is no illegal immigrant and if HDB, to register with HDB.

Nothing to do with any lease terms.

[x9200]

As SE said, there are only a few cases reflected in a typically TA when the early termination is "lawful". I can recall only these:
- apartment become inhabitable
- under diplomatic clause

I don't think any of those are applicable to your case. Your probably only hope is to find replacement tenants and convince the LL to accept them for the lease exceeding your lease term. This means the LL has to deal with the individual tenants what appears he tries to avoid so I would not have too much hope.

Learn the lesson and have proper sub-letting TAs in place next time.