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Lease problem

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    80

    Satay: I did some research and found out that the one month notice before leaving has to be added to the lease length (12 months lease contract actually means 13 months, 24 months means 25 etc.) so it is not just a weird thing of my contract and in my case I just have bad timing.
    I expect the landlord to stick to the conditions of the contract as she seems to be quite rigid (she did not want to pay for the painting of the apartment when we moved in etc.) but I hope I am wrong and she will be understanding.

    anothercanuck: I do not have bad relationship with my landlord, I just have no relationship with her so in a city that is pro-landlord as HK is, I don't see why she would do me that favour. I will definitely talk to her but won't provide another tenant simply because nobody will accept to pay my rent for one month. We'll see...


  2. #12

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    88

    If you haven't approached your landlord yet, I would certainly try talking to him/her first. It's not necessarily he/she doing you a favor per se. If you've bern a good tenant and you're willing to be flexible Un terms of maybe letting potential tenants view the flat the month before you leave, then your landlord might be open to you leaving early without penalty.

    We had a similar situation with our tenant who renewed but then wanted out a month before the fixed term expired. We agreed to it and he agreed to let us show it to prospective tenants. At the end of the day, the landlord just wants to reduce the "dead" time between rentals.


  3. #13

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    14,624

    As I understand you are moving within HK, right? So why don't you stay one additionnal month and during that month accept the commute to the "far away" school for your daughter?


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    119

    I think that you will just have to suck it up. Claiming that you were new to HK and didn't know how things worked isn't a good excuse IMO. You obviously read the contract before you signed the lease and must have been happy with it at the time. If not or if you thought that things might be a bit unstable for a while, you would have pressed for a shorter lease term or looked elsewhere. That said, it wouldn't hurt to talk to the landlord and just ask if they would be willing to let you out of the lease early.


  5. #15

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    80

    Pea: thank you for your reassuring message.
    Mat: the first reason why we'd rather move out one month earlier is that it will be our last year in HK so it might be quite difficult to find a second rental for less than a year (except serviced apartments which are overpriced for us). Other reasons are that I would like to avoid the commute with two young kids for a month and also have a less expensive rent as it will be time to pay for high school fees.
    Mimi: contracts are really that negotiable here? And what if the landlord simply says no to your requests and you really like the apartment? Sometimes you accept contracts because they are the best compromise you find...

    Last edited by temajie; 27-09-2011 at 09:55 PM.

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    119

    You didn't have to accept the apartment if you weren't happy with the contract. If you were willing to compromise on the contract in order to secure an apartment you liked, you should also be willing to fulfill it's terms should the landlord not decide to release you from it earlier. Just talk to her first though - no point asking us before doing that.

    Satay Sue likes this.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Kent, England
    Posts
    6,728

    @Temajie : we found an apartment we loved but landlord asked for 3 months deposit + one month's rent in advance. We told them to take a running jump. No matter how much you like somewhere you shouldn't sign an agreement you are uncomfortable with.