Break lease fee: Profit off tenant leaving

I'm with you on this... but greedy people sleep well at night knowing how easily they scr*ed someone over. They tend to thrive on this. I would cover my own costs and move on ad not take a cent more.

 

this is one of the more heinous threads ive read recently, some achievement.

congrats on being a scumbag. they have actually done you a massive favour by moving out as you now collect more in rent each week. on top of that you not only want the $4k but youre going to charge them for leaving a small amount of grass clippings even though you admit theyve generally taken good care of the place???

 

Putting aside any morality issues this is what NSW Fair trading has to say - read the 'Optional break fee' paragraph.

Breaking_a_lease_early

 

That is what the plain reading of the provisions seem to suggest. But like I said, I've heard that the tribunal interpretation might be different. Believe it or not, the Fair Trading point of view has pretty much no legal weight in tribunal.

If I get some time I'll try and look into it since I'm curious myself.

I know the NSW tenant's union had a different interpretation and running those arguments at CTTT/NCAT - not sure of the outcome.

 

I don't have any interest in moral debates either.
Interesting that there is a break fee that can be included in a lease agreement. Is that what you were talking about landlord19?
Is there a break fee included that you would be charging?

Keep us posted on outcome, I tend to agree with Mr Bum, tribunals can rule either way even with a clause in place.

 

@Xenia as per the extract which I put up before, tenant/lessor can agree that a break fee applies or that the tenant is responsible for all costs until expiry. It may sound harsh in this instance that the tenant has been hit with a 4 week break fee where the lessor has not suffered a loss but has benefitted from the break both with uplift and lack of vacancy but both parties have agreed to these conditions. I also pointed out that it cuts both ways, if the property was relet after a 8 week vacancy, the tenant would not have to pay the additional costs either.

 

Surely you're not suggesting that it's another one of star of david's accounts?

 

That would defeat the purpose of the clause. In NSW it's an either or for break lease. You either state in the lease a fixed break lease applies or you don't and it falls back to the usual method of landlords costs

The point of the fixed fee is to give tenants certainty about how much it will cost them if they are to leave early so they can make a decision with eyes wide open