Ending Tenancy Early

[Flirble]

I am in the unfortunate position to have a sudden loss of income and having to end my tenancy early.

I understand my contractual obligations to pay council tax, rent, utilities until the end of the tenancy or until a new tenancy agreement is in place (you can't have 2 tenancies in force at the same time) so I'm ending mine 2 months early.

I have no problem paying my rent until new tenant is found and also have no problem with paying the council tax etc as per the above.

I have provided notice of our intention to vacate the property and rent has been paid already until the end of February.

The agent has informed me the landlord will recoup £480+VAT from my deposit - I'm not sure this is right as the fees for relisting and acquiring a new tenant are not 'additional' fees the landlord is incurring as they would have to do this when I left anyway at the end of my 6months (fixed term portion that would then have become a periodic tenancy) I can understand why they think they should recoup them but I don't see them as additional fees to those they would have incurred anyway had the tenancy run it's course.

As I say I'm fine with paying rent and bills until the new tenant is acquired or the natural duration of the tenancy whichever comes first but wanted to test with those here if I have any pushback on the intended fee recovery part?

Oh and whilst I'm here I've also been asked to professionally flea treat the property as I was permitted a dog at the house however there is nothing in the tenancy agreement or the pet clause in the agreement stating this would be required - he doesn't have fleas or any pests if he did I would do this no problem but he doesn't and given my situation I'm obviously trying to minimise my cash outlay right now. I don't think the flea treatment request is reasonable or enforcable as it's been made after I signed the tenancy agreement, it isn't specified in the agreement and so you can't impose terms AFTER the agreement has been signed.

Thanks for any help and advice

[islandgirl]

Presumably the deposit is in a scheme? You can object to the deduction and see what they decide I believe.

[Flirble]

Yes it is in a scheme DPS specifically, any thoughts on the flea treatment request...?

[islandgirl]

I would agree that unless you agreed to the flea treatment clause upfront they could not deduct for it - as long as you can prove you left the property clean and removed evidence of said doggo. I am not a lawyer though - that is just my opinion. Raise a dispute with the DPS when LL seeks the deductions. It will be looked at by an assessor and a decision made. For more detailed info and to read about similar experiences sign up for the Landlordzone forum (it helps tenants and LLs)

[Flirble]

So just to close this off, yes I know it's a year on - but the DPS found that their fees were excessive and cut them 50% and upheld that I didn't 'need' to flea treat as it was imposed after the tenancy has been signed but did say it wasn't an unreasonable request for allowing a pet, but in this case I didn't 'need' to for the stated reason. So they didn't allow for that deduction either - so a pretty good outcome for me and I was able to move on.