The terms of the lease will determine what options you have. These may include:
- Sub-letting part or all of the premises (see 17).
- 'Assigning' (selling) the lease to a new tenant.
- Exercising your right to terminate the lease under a break clause (see 12) or because the landlord has broken the terms of the lease.
- Negotiating the termination of the lease with the landlord - though the landlord will not be under any obligation to accept any proposal you make.
It is important to understand that while terminating a lease will usually absolve you of future responsibility for the premises, sub-letting or assigning the lease usually will not. If you sub-let part or all of the premises, you will still retain all your liabilities to the landlord (and your tenant will have separate liabilities to you under the sub-lease you have agreed). Assigning the lease generally falls somewhere between these two positions, depending on the terms of the lease. You will usually still be liable to pay the rent to the landlord if the new tenant fails to do so.
Leases entered into later than 1996 can require the outgoing tenants to guarantee their immediate successor.
