tenant tenancy-rules
Tenancy Termination Confusion
<p>Edit: this is a 12 month tenancy agreement within a resident landlord property and is therefore outside of The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. </p>

<p>This is an early termination clause in a 12 month tenancy contract and I wanted to know whether it means that the minimum length of the contract is 8 months or 10 months. I won't prejudice your answers in any way but in essence do you get the sense from the way it is written that either:</p>

<p>1) tenant who wants to terminate at 8 months can give notice 2 months previously to then pay 8 months worth of rent</p>

<p>2) the tenant has to give notice for terminating the contract after the 8 months so that the minimum term is 10 months worth of rent</p>

<p>"In the event that the Tenant shall desire to terminate the tenancy hereby created at or at any time after the end of the first eight months thereof he shall give the Landlord not less than two months’ notice in writing of such desire and shall up to the time of such determination pay the 
rent and observe and perform the agreements and obligations on the tenants part."</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I wanted to know whether it means that the minimum length of the contract is 8 months or 10 months.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The first interpretation is correct: 8 months is the minimum. The clause does not require that the notice be made upon 8 months of tenancy. It only requires that (1) the anticipation/notice be of no less than two months prior to the date
the termination will be effective, and (2) that termination cannot be effective prior to the end of the 8th month.</p>

<p>The more obscure part is the requirement of paying the rent "<em>up to the time of such determination</em>", given that <em>determination</em> is commonly understood as <em>decision</em> rather than the point in time when that decision will be <em>effective</em>. Thus, unless it is just sloppy wording, the clause might be requiring the tenant to pay <em>in advance</em> the rent corresponding to the periods between the date of the notice and the date when early termination will be effective.</p>
