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3 months ago, I moved to the UK and I signed a rent contract for a house, along with another person. Recently, the person who shares the flat with me decided to come back to her country, and leave the house. When we signed the contract, we were said that we couldn’t finish it earlier, but if we found a replacement, we could then leave.

With the help of the recruiter (both the girl leaving and me moved here at the same time, and were recruited by the same company) we have found a new girl to replace her in the contract, but the recruiter has advised us to not inform the landlord yet, because since the other girl is breaching the contract already, we could be forced to leave the house and still keep paying the rent for the rest of the contract. But I feel that this is wrong, since there is a clause at the contract that forces us to inform him in case this happens.

Since I’m not familiar with the UK law, could someone explain to me in what position I am? Could I have problems with the landlord in case the other girl breaches the contract? Could I be forced to keep paying the rent for the whole year and still not allowed to live here? Should I concern about something else?

Now I’m leaning towards informing the landlord that the other girl wants to leave, but I’m worried about the possibilities afterwards.

The advice of the recruiter doesn't seem right to me, and I think by following his advice, I'm going to end breaching the contract myself, and I would like to avoid that,

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  • I understand this pertains to the UK, but under US contract law, the landlord in this instance would also have the duty to mitigate his damages. This means he'd have to work diligently to fill the space and, while you may be liable for the time that the space is unoccupied under joint and several liability (if that exists in the UK), the landlord likely cannot just sit back and collect the entire rent from you while doing nothing to fill the open space.
    – A.fm.
    Commented Jan 30, 2019 at 23:45

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Could I be forced to keep paying the rent for the whole year and still not allowed to live here?

I am not knowledgeable of UK law, but I highly doubt that the recruiter's statement is accurate. Forcing a tenant to both move out and keep paying solely because the other tenant breached the contract seems too punitive [toward the remaining tenant] to be enforceable.

The worst that could happen is that the landlord makes you cover the other's rent for as long as the new tenant replaces the one who left. Even that would depend on the terms of your contract (for instance, if the contract provides that the signing tenants are jointly and severally liable).

Should I concern about something else?

It is hard to pinpoint any possible issues without knowing the language/terms used in the contract. But generally speaking, contracts (or parts thereof) that contravene the legislation are void.

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