During the past 12 months we have noticed a change in the number of tenants wanting to break their Tenancy Agreement. This is predominately due to the economy. Some reasons that tenants are requesting to break their Agreement are due to:
- Tenants being relocated for employment
- Personal family issues
- Loss of employment placing the tenant in financial hardship
Just to a name a few.
When a tenant signs an Agreement it is binding (in most circumstances) for the term of the agreement i.e. 6-12 months. However, legislation does provide a tenant with the option to break their Agreement by stating that “A landlord cannot unreasonably refuse a tenant to break their Agreement”.
If a tenant requests to break their agreement there are responsibilities and obligations that must be fulfilled by the tenant.
The tenant is responsible for:
- The payment of rent until another tenant is found
- The payment of reasonable actual letting costs in securing a new tenant
- The payment of marketing and advertising costs in securing a new tenant
Once we are notified of the tenant request it is important for our agency to carefully manage the process to avoid potential risk situations of the property becoming vacant with no tenant. It needs to be clearly stated in writing to the current tenant that their request to break the Agreement will not be authorised or their obligation under the Agreement released until the new incoming tenant/s have signed an enforceable Agreement and paid ALL monies (rent and bond) in advance and in cleared funds.
There have been situations we have heard of in the industry where a current tenant has been released from their Agreement and the new incoming tenant has changed their mind with no bond security paid. When managing every process of the tenancy our focus is always to protect your investment, maximise your income and optimise capital growth.
If a tenant does request to break their Agreement our property management team will discuss this promptly with you.
Take the risk out of renting.
