Giving notice to your landlord will allow you to end your contract with your landlord in a polite and considerate way to avoid any problems. In our guide, we’ll walk you through how to give notice to your landlord and provide you with tenancy notice template letters to help you out!
Giving notice to your landlord to end your tenancy can be a scary step. Especially if you’ve never ended a tenancy before, you can sometimes feel rude about giving your landlord notice. However, it’s a very normal occurrence as renters move on into new flats or even back home with their parents. Giving notice is the surest way you won’t end up putting you or your landlord in an awkward situation.
Not giving notice to your landlord to let them know you’re planning on leaving the property can cause a lot of problems for yourself that can best be avoided. If you just tell them on the day or worse you don’t say anything at all, you end up making the situation more difficult and the possibility of even legal action against you, for example if you stop paying rent.
Most importantly, you might find yourself negatively impacted in the future when it comes to renting somewhere else, as financially a problem. If you quit your tenancy without notice, you won’t be able to:
The amount of notice you should give a landlord depends a lot on the type of tenancy agreement you have, what’s included in it, and how much you’ve been staying at the property so far. Although often the length of time is specified in the agreement, there are also generalised notice periods that you can check if you’re unsure, however you should always go on what is in the tenancy agreement.
The most common type of tenancy agreement you’ll likely get is a shorthold assured tenancy agreement. This has been the standard rental agreement since 1998, and usually defines a fixed period of 12 months and a rolling tenancy for up to 5 years.
Usually, these are called a fixed-term tenancy and a periodic tenancy respectively, and they have different rules when it comes to ending them. There is also the element of whether you have a break clause in the agreement. These rules also apply to those with social landlords as those with private ones.
What’s a break clause? A break clause is a line in a tenancy agreement that sets out how to end it early. Not every contract will have a break clause but you can request a landlord put one in before you sign. Break clauses usually define the period in which you can give the notice, how long the notice needs to be, and how you need to give it.
A typical break clause looks like this:
“The tenancy may be ended by the landlord or tenant giving at least 1 month’s notice in writing at any time after no less than 6 months from the start of this agreement."
In this break clause, the tenant will have to stay at the property at least 6 months before being able to give their 1 months notice.
Taking into account all of this, when you can leave your tenancy agreement and how much notice you give to your landlord depends on all these factors:
| Tenancy Type | Break Clause | No Break Clause | Live-In Landlord? | No Live-In Landlord |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-Term Tenancy | What your break clause says | You'll need to stay until the end of the fixed period. This is usually 12 months. | No difference | No Difference |
| Periodic Tenancy | A break clause is no longer needed after your fixed period. | A break clause is no longer needed after your fixed period. | There is no set period of notice. You only have to reach an agreement with your landlord. | The standard is 1 month’s notice. If you pay your rent quarterly, you’ll need to give 3 months. |
Adapted from table on Citizen’s Advice
When ending your tenancy early, you really should consult your break clause. You should also insist on a break clause if you are unsure about your situation in the property.
If you want to end your tenancy before the required time in the break clause, this can be very expensive since you will have to pay for that entire fixed period. For example, if you have a 6 month’s minimum, and you need to leave after 2 months, you will be liable to pay for the remaining 4.
There is also an element of timing when it comes to giving notice to your landlord. If you’re moving out, you need to make sure you’ve factored in the notice period into the time for you to move to go ahead. You should also keep in mind when you usually make your rent payments since leaving out of the cycle can make it difficult to work out how much you need to pay.
Organising a move is complicated and you usually need to have a good run up before moving day to make sure you have everything ready to go before you move out. If you’ve got your moving house checklist, the latest you need to start getting sorted is 2 months before the move.
In the case of 1 month’s notice, you'll easily factor this in for the second half of your move, but this means you’ll need to have a definitive moving date to make sure you have a deadline for vacating the property.
If you’re renting as part of a joint tenancy or a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) as part of a house share, you might need to get the agreement of your housemates as well as your landlord if you’re planning on ending your tenancy earlier if you are in your fixed-term. You will usually be able to use your break clause in this event. If you are in a periodic tenancy, you can give notice without the agreement of the others in the tenancy.
It’s not always necessary to write a formal tenancy notice letter to say you’re going to be leaving the property. However, some landlords and tenancy agreements have it written into the contract that the notice needs to be in writing and you can’t just communicate orally.
To give you an idea of what write when asked to put your notice into writing, here’s an example of an end of tenancy letter you could you put together:
End of Tenancy Letter Example
I am giving my 1 month’s notice to end my tenancy, as required by law and the tenancy agreement. My last date in the property will be 04/09/2022.
I will be available to go through the inventory checklist signed on the beginning of the contract to account for the condition of the property and for the return of my tenancy deposit of £460.
I will also return the keys on that date.
It doesn’t necessarily have to follow this exact structure and it should change depending on your situation, however this should give you an idea of what to write. Below, you can download a copy of this tenancy notice letter as a Word Document that you can edit:
A lot of tenancy agreements will specify what is valid in terms of a notice to quit tenancy, however if it needs to be written, an email or a text message is perfectly acceptable. As long as the notice to quit tenancy contains all the information it should have, there should be no problem with doing it digitally.
During the lockdown in 2020, there were numerous reports of landlords refusing tenants the use of their break clause and even their notice to quit tenancy. According to Which?, landlords had barred tenants from leaving the property and threatened them with losing their deposits.
Since a tenancy agreement is a legal contract and there are laws protecting both tenants and landlords, landlords cannot violate those agreements under any circumstances and are all part of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Your landlord cannot legally detain you from leaving the property and they can neither refuse your use of the break clause. In the case of your tenancy agreement being over, you are no longer in a legal contract and you can leave whenever you like.
The only way you can lose your deposit is if you have caused damage to the property that’ll require it to pay for the repairs. You can also lose it if you’ve not given any notice to quit tenancy. If you have given notice to your landlord, you are entitled to have your deposit refunded and it is illegal for your landlord to hang onto it.
If you’re struggling to get your deposit back, use our Deposit Return letter template for deposits paid after April 2007 to write to your landlord to get your deposit returned to you:
Deposit Return Letter Example
I vacated the above property on 09/11/2022, after serving our 1 month's notice as per the tenancy agreement, and I returned all sets of keys to you on the same day.
I have complied with all the contractual obligations on our side of the tenancy agreement. I have paid all bills and no damage was caused to the property as agreed in our inventory checklist.
I was informed that we would receive a bank transfer for our deposit refund, but we still haven't received anything.
If I do not hear from you within 5 working days, I shall assume you are holding my deposit unfairly and I shall therefore be applying to the tenancy deposit protection service that safeguards my deposit and request an adjudication and final settlement.
All names and addresses are fictional
Again, you don’t have to follow this exact structure, but it provides you with an idea of what you write if you need to get your deposit back.
After you give notice to your landlord, you’ll have the entire notice period to remain in the property until the date you specify for your moving out. If you’ve already started another tenancy while serving your notice in the old one, you’ll need to make sure there’s not too much overlap during your transition.
Here’s a list of 5 things to remember to do after giving notice to your landlord:
