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My tenancy is set to end on the 20th April, however I've agreed with the landlord that I will be moving out on the 15th (this was their idea, but works well for me). I moved in on the 20th, so my monthly rent payment period covers the 20th through to the 19th.

My landlord has requested that I pay the full monthly rent and said that they will repay this back to me when I get my deposit back, however I'm not very comfortable with this. Am I legally obliged to pay the full month of rent, or can I instead send over that amount less the 4 days I will not be living in the property?

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  • Is the change in move out date in writing or in an email?
    – mhoran_psprep
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 13:05
  • @mhoran_psprep it's part of an email conversation.
    – James Donnelly
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 13:12
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because legal matters between landlords and renters are off-topic to Personal Finance & Money. And add a location tag!!!
    – RonJohn
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 13:42

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This is not legal advice. I am not a lawyer. That said, if your written lease says that you can stay in the apartment until the 20th, a verbal agreement that you'll vacate earlier is not binding unless your landlord offered some consideration in exchange for your agreement to alter the lease. Possibly, it's not binding even then unless the landlord actually writes it down as an amendment to the lease. The landlord cannot get something for nothing. You are free to decline the landlord's offer to reimburse you after the fact and demand payment in advance (in the form of a reduced rent payment) or else stay for the full term of the lease as agreed.

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Personally, I wouldn't do it.

If they've already agreed that you don't need to pay the full amount, then paying them the extra, just so they can hold onto it and promise to pay it back later, does nothing but create potential risk for you.

As long as you have something in writing (email is fine) where the two of you agree that you will move out earlier and hence not end up paying for the final 4 days of your lease, I would go ahead and adjust your final rent payment accordingly.

Potentially, this will annoy your landlord and they'll take it out on you when deciding how much of your deposit to keep. But if they're the kind of person who would do that, they were probably planning to screw you over anyway.

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  • "if they're the kind of person who would do that" What? Are you claiming there are landlords who don't make a standard practice of coming up with spurious excuses to deny tenants their deposits back?
    – Mason Wheeler
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 21:11
  • I've never had one landlord that screwed me out of my deposit...
    – infinitezero
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 21:11

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