Break options

Break options

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. For guidance regarding the Act’s impact on residential tenancies in England, see Practice Note: Renters' Rights Act 2025—key provisions.

General

A lease for a term of years may contain an option for one or both of the parties, to end the lease before the contractual expiry date. This is known as a break option or a break clause. The break may be exercisable:

•
at any time after a fixed date (a 'rolling break')
•
on one or more fixed dates, or
•
on the happening of stated events

In practice, most leases expressly state whether the break is exercisable by the landlord or the tenant, or if the right is mutual to both parties. In the case of a tenant, unless there is any indication to the contrary, the break option is exercisable by the person in whom the term is for the time being legally vested. However, if it is expressed to be personal to the original tenant it will normally lapse on the first assignment as a matter

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