Giving and Receiving Notice to Quit

You can’t simply decide to leave a property and move out immediately. By law, you have to give your landlord a fixed period of written notice informing him or her of your intention to leave the property. This is known as a Notice to Quit. Your landlord also has to provide you with notice if he or she wants you to move out.

If you’ve decided to move out, your landlord will probably want to put the property back on the market pretty quickly. Many tenancy agreements include a clause that allows the landlord, agent or tenant to show potential renters around the property once it is on the market.

 Do you have a tenancy agreement?

You can’t end a tenancy during the term of the agreement simply by giving notice to quit.  This is because you have signed a legal contract to stay in the property and pay rent for a set period of time.  You can only end the agreement if you have your landlord’s written permission to get out of the tenancy early.  The landlord could still take you to court for unpaid rent if you do not have this agreement.

 Amount of notice required

If you don’t have a tenancy agreement and you’ve lived in the property for more than 6 months you are a periodic tenant and can leave the tenancy by giving your landlord notice to quit in writing.  The amount of notice that you are required to give your landlord or Richmond Harvey, is one month. Your landlord is required to provide you with two months’ notice if they require the possession of the property

The Notice to Quit must be in writing. You should clearly state the date that you intend to leave. The landlord/ Richmond Harvey will arrange a date with you to inspect the property on the date that you move out. You should keep a copy for your own records.

 Leaving without giving notice to quit

You will continue to owe your landlord rent if you leave your tenancy early when you don’t have the right to. Your landlord can take legal action to claim this rent money from you. You could be held liable for rent up to the time when you would have been able to end the tenancy, which could be:

• until the end of the term for fixed term tenants
• until you’ve served a written Notice to Quit and the date on this notice has passed for periodic tenants
• until the landlord has let the property to new tenants who are now paying rent.