Early Termination of tenancy

[Mi Amigo]

Perhaps we've been lucky, but we've never had any major problems with landlords here (so far, at any rate). Our approach has always been to treat the property as if it were our own and look after it very well, as well as paying the rent by standing order towards the end of the month before it's actually due, making sure that aircon servicing and other requirements are carried out consistently, etc. Alongside that, I generally take care of repairs myself if I am able to, without involving the landlord or their agent unless it's a major issue that needs their involvement. Above all, I'll always try to avoid getting into a pi$$ing contest over a relatively trivial matter. That seems to have paid off for us over various rentals.

I know, from reading some of the stories on here, that there are bad landlords out there, but there are also bad tenants, who just bugger off without meeting their obligations. This I believe can make even a 'good' landlord very wary, which may have an impact on later tenants who may have nothing but good intentions.

The one area of difficulty we've had is getting back the deposit at the end of the tenancy. As the deposit is held by the landlord, it sometimes feels like they regard it as 'their' money, which you have to convince them to give to you. Obviously there has to be an equitable system whereby damages and other costs are accounted for, but even after that has been done, we've had problems in getting landlords to pony up the deposit (or balance thereof). This has happened not only with a private landlord, but also with NTUC Income, who were the owners of one of the previous places we lived in.

As landlords in the UK, our experience with the tenancy deposit protection scheme there has (so far) been good. JR8 may have views on this, but IMO it's a good idea that the deposit is held in a separate escrow account, and not by the landlord. I think it would be a good step forward if a similar scheme could be introduced here. But at the end of the day, I'm just a 'guest' in this country so what I think doesn't really matter to the gahmen.

[Wd40]

There are 3 kinds of landlords.
1)Those are evil and try to keep your deposit and play scams on you.
2)Those that are extremely nice and return your deposit back inspite of tenant breaking the tenancy early, if the tenant finds a good replacement tenant and willing to pay for the damages. Listens to tenants various requests for replacement furnitures etc especially during tenancy renewal.

I have been lucky in that, I haven't ever dealt with type 1. But I have been unlucky in that I also haven't dealt with landlords of the type 2.

Instead the landlords, I have dealt with are of type 3 who like to go by the book. Keep the deposit if I break tenancy. Gives me a vintage fridge and when its broken and it costs $180 to fix it the landlord tells me according to the agreement, I need to pay for it since its under $200. I am not complaining, just saying.

So not all landlords are bad. In fact, if I have to survey all my colleagues who have left the country and broken tenancy early(there have been several of them in the last 4 years) most have got back their deposit or atleast partially.

There are only 1 or 2 cases where inspite of completing the whole tenancy they didn't get back the deposit.

[JR8]

As landlords in the UK, our experience with the tenancy deposit protection scheme there has (so far) been good. JR8 may have views on this, but IMO it's a good idea that the deposit is held in a separate escrow account, and not by the landlord.

- It took a little time to 'appreciate' the scheme, especially when I initially had to find about £7k that had been absorbed years earlier, into personal cash-flow.

- I use a letting agent, so they deal with it which I'm happy about. If I managed my own tenants and property I expect I would have been frustrated to have to learn about and deal with yet another piece of legislation designed to protect others landlords' tenants.

- Now the scheme is bedded in, I think it is ok. It's mean I don't even think about the depo's any more. My personal cash-flows don't get skewed. The tenant gets peace of mind that their depo is not at the whim the some stranger, who just happens to be their landlord.