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Where to turn for letting my apartment before the contract e

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Spence
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Where to turn for letting my apartment before the contract e

Post by Spence » Fri, 20 Nov 2009 8:51 am

Firstly, this is not an ad, I need advice...!

My family are leaving Singapore early, before my a
partment contract ends and before the diplomatic clause can be triggered.

How do I find someone to take over the place without losing money? Do I contact the landlords agent (saying if we leave they can get more money) and they find someone? Do I find someone myself (who gets a better deal than the market rate)?

Rents have gone up since we signed up so I think it should be fine. I just don't want to lose a months rent.

All advice gratefully received.

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revhappy
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Post by revhappy » Fri, 20 Nov 2009 9:44 am

It completely depends on the nature of your landlord and the type of rapport you have built with him. If he is a jerk, he could simply refuse to give your deposit back, he would be aware of the higher rentals and he can easily get someone else and also keep your deposit.

If I were you I would go to the landlord as soon as possible and give ample notice and tell the landlord the situation and also say that I am courteous enough to give lots of notice, I could have just left the house without any notice as the worst case i would lose the deposit, so for the sake of courtesy give my deposit back atleast a part of it. Also offer to find a tenant and bear any related expenses.

All the best!!

nick.wakefield
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Re: Where to turn for letting my apartment before the contra

Post by nick.wakefield » Tue, 15 Dec 2009 2:12 pm

We had a similar situation, and our tenancy agreement had a clause which allowed us to sublet. We approached the landlord wanting to get out of the lease early, and pointing out that she would invariably get more for the apartment if she let it immediately instead of waiting for our tenancy to expire. However, she didn't see that and instead said we had to stay and couldn't sublet.

She said she would let it out, but she was asking way above market rental, and only wanted to let it out a month before our lease was due to expire - and 3 months later than we wanted.

According to our legal advice we were entitled to terminate the lease early (we weren't using the diplomatic clause as we were staying in Singapore) and the landlord had a duty at law to mitigate her loss. This means that the landlord must, acting reasonably, try and re-let the apartment at a fair market rate. It also meant that if she re-let the property she couldn't still charge us rent for the same period.

We were entitled by our lease to sublet the property and the landlord could not unreasonably withhold permission.

As we had the law on our side though, we advertised the property for a short-term let, and had the landlord meet the prospective tenants. We sub-let the property for the remainder of our lease, and we continued to pay the rent, and received the (same) rent from our tenants.

We were also concerned that our landlord may keep our two months deposit (I have heard of this happening on a regular basis and for very flimsy excuses). We decided not to pay the last month's rent (trying to reduce how much the landlord might want to keep as she had been a quite difficult landlord).

She actually didn't say anything about that, and we also received back half of our security deposit (she kept the other half being the month's rent we owed her), and she was pleased with the condition of the property when we returned it to her.

The only long-term problem I have had is I still get real estate agents ringing and sending me SMS message about apartments for sale or rent, and wanting to know whether I still had the apartment (from mid 2008) and that is very frustrating. I have removed all adverts that I placed but obviously once they get your number ...

The people I sublet to didn't come through an agent, I can't remember where now though.

I used this forum to advertise, and some real estate forums as well.

Good luck.
Nick & Karen Wakefield

Spence
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Post by Spence » Tue, 15 Dec 2009 5:07 pm

Thanks for the reply - it was very useful and much appreciated

I have a couple of questions.

- Where did you advertise exactly?
- Would you recommend your lawyer?

Thanks
Stephen

nick.wakefield
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Post by nick.wakefield » Tue, 15 Dec 2009 6:34 pm

URL CENSORED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES

Our legal advice was from one of the solicitors at my husband's workplace.
Nick & Karen Wakefield

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