Paying school back for rent paid upfront

[Ciara]

I’m just wondering if anyone has been in this situation or if it’s ‘normal’ here. A friend works for an academy and wants to leave in the next few months, He has already been there for about two years. According to the contract! he has to give two months notice, which is reasonable enough.
 

However, this school pays rent upfront for the employee for the year. They last paid just last month. I assume they get a better rate for paying the full year.

 

They are saying that if he leaves before the end of the year, even if he gives notice, he will have o pay them back this rent. So if he left in Jan, he would have to pay them back for Feb to June. This would really dent his finances as he doesn’t get paid very well! It’s almost putting him in the situation where he might have to stay longer than he would like.

 

Is this kind of thing common and is there anything he could do about it? My first thought is to ask him to check his contract etc. He doesn’t want to get into an antagonistic situation with them because he I’ll need a release letter.

 

Any thoughts or shared experience of this would be appreciated!

[roddy]

The school are potentially losing out, but it's their problem, assuming no contract clauses covering this. They could have made his contract line up with the rent periods, and anyway will quite possibly be moving another teacher in. I'd be taking a "That's very unfortunate, but it's between you and the landlord" approach. There's not much he can do if they decide to be difficult about it. It's also quite possible that making him unable to leave is the point - they might not want to lose him. 

[ChTTay]

53 minutes ago, Ciara said:

He doesn’t want to get into an antagonistic situation with them because he I’ll need a release letter.

Try negotiate with them. If they just say it’s not their problem then that’s when things could get a bit hairy with regard to release letter. 
 

Depends how desperate they are to leave also. Could offer to stay a few more months but less than the amount demanded for rent, could offer to pay a couple months rent extra, etc Just try and feel out the school. 
 

It’s roughly about the time teachers leave for summer though and are end of or mid-contract. If it was in the middle of the term then I’d be less sympathetic. However, it’s common for people to leave now, after the semester ends. It’s likely they’re worried they won’t be able to recruit another teacher due to Covid restrictions etc. 
 

I wouldn’t say this situation is normal but these also aren’t normal times. 

[Takeshi]

Am I the only one who thinks it's reasonable for him to not get to keep money that is paid for time he now doesn't plan to work...?

[roddy]

The rents been paid directly to the landlord, for school-provided accommodation. He’s not getting to keep anything. 

[Takeshi]

Oh, so the rent is paid directly to the landlord, but since the op quit now, the landlord gets to keep the rent he got from the school anyway (they don't have to pay it back), and the op has to pay the value of the rent to the school from his own pocket?

 

Strange situation. Sounds like the biggest winner is the landlord.

[mungouk]

In China there's normally no "break clause" in your lease/rental contract, so if you want to move out and you pay rent X months in advance, you need to try to make the timing line up with when your lease expires, or find someone who will take over the lease from you.

 

I ended up losing the equivalent of 2 months' rent when I left Beijing for this reason, since rent was payable in advance 3 months at a time.