Hey guys, I'm looking for objective advice on this situation to check I'm not being unreasonable.
I'm letting my apartment in the UK out to a friend of my partner while we are both living abroad for the year. We don't have a rental contract and I didn't take a deposit but we had an agreement that she would be living there for a year until 31st July 2026. I also set the rent at just enough to cover the monthly mortgage payments and ground rent, which works out at around 30% less than the usual rent for this kind of property. I did this on the basis that she is a friend and I didn't want to be ripping her off.
She has now messaged me saying that she has found a new place to live and wants to move out early-mid June, around 7 weeks before we agreed. I'm realistically in no position to arrange another tenant at such short notice for a short period of time while I'm living abroad.
What is a fair response to this? I know she has no legal obligation to stay and I don't want to tell her what to do but it will leave me out of pocket by quite a lot if she does leave