VIC Ending Tenancy by Mutual Agreement

Hey guys, bit of advice wanted (long story, sorry). My wife and I are settling on a house we’ve bought at the start of Feb, however our current lease doesn’t end until the end of April.

Obviously it was our choice to buy whilst having a fixed lease in place, subsequent fees etc. etc. That being said, we’d like to end the lease at the end of March (1 month early) to give us some time to do some renovations to the new house while having another place to live.

We’ve emailed the property manager to try and start discussions with the landlord to negotiate an end to the lease by mutual agreement, figuring that giving four months notice might help our case. The property manager has said essentially that it’s too soon to do anything, and until we send an official “intent to vacate” notice form, nothing can be done. And once we submit the form, if the landlord doesn’t agree to waive them, apparently we’re liable for listing/advertising fees + rent until it’s rented, instead of just our last months rent.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

 

What are you asking? The owner has no incentive to let you break lease early and let you off paying until it is relet plus reletting fees. Giving them four months notice has no value since they cant advertise until its close to available.

to be honest, given that it’s only a month and you would be up for listing and advertising fees if you break lease, maybe just pay up to 30 apr and vacate normally?

From your other post its a decent amount of reno? Give yourself some protection if the work on the new place is delayed. If all your tradies disappear for easter......

 

Fixed lease is there for a reason. It protects the tenants, it protects the landlords too. Unless your LL has another tenant eagerly waiting to start lease at end March, it wouldn't be a "mutual" agreement to pre-maturely end this tenancy.

Your reno plans seem rather extensive. I had a smaller scale reno done at my IP 3 years ago. Tradies estimated 4 weeks' completion. It took more than 7 weeks, due to various unforeseeable circumstances.

In January this year my good longterm tenant [5 years on periodic lease] had served notice to end the tenancy. He was looking forward to moving his family of 6 into their new home, but their house's reno was delayed again and again. My PM couldn't commit to start lease date with potential new renters because my old tenant couldn't confirm when they could vacate the property. I had a mutual agreement with this tenant to allow them to vacate only when their house was ready to move in. Rent was paid till the day they vacated.

@lowey16, good luck with your negotiation. but do be mentally prepared that the reno jobs might take longer than expected. Renovating your PPOR is an exciting & emotional process

 

Good points guys. I guess in the grand scheme of things it’s not that much, but it would have been nice to have a little extra cash to spend on the new house. Maybe I’ll just look at it as an opportunity to have less stress around reno timeframes (if that’s possible haha).

 

Trainee might get satisfaction being nasty. I think most people dont including landlords most are decent would be accommodating and do get satisfaction and joy from helping people out. It should be no skin of the Land Lord getting a new lease a month earlier, may even be able to get higher rent, If anything March would be a better time to lease a property. You property manager is right it is too early, better to wait to feb at least you will know if you builders are on schedule and depth of market will be clearer. If LL wants to be a prick sub lease it over Easter and make more than the rent.

 

This is a break lease situation. You advise with plenty of notice that you are intending on moving out early and give them your ideal move date. They have a responsibility to advertise to mitigate your loss, just as you have a responsibility to cover their costs associated with you leaving early. Assuming no complicating factors, they should be able to secure new tenants within a week or two of you moving. This will save you at least a couple of weeks of rent and guarantee the landlord zero vacancy- win win! I love break leases (especially near end of lease).

@Lil Skater do you want to fill us in on the specifics of VIC break leases? I believe you've recently suffered some new tenant-centric rules that might help OP

 

Thanks Tom. I was under the impression that I could notify them with an email (they’ve agreed to electronic communication in the lease), but the property manager said we need to submit the “official” intent to vacate notice. She also acted like it was the craziest decision we could make, deciding this early on a date to vacate the property.

 

Email 99% of the time will suffice, but sometimes people make things complicated.

I do agree it’s too soon to give a firm date if you’re doing renovations, and also too soon to advertise - but not necessarily too soon to discuss the matter.

I’d agree most would be okay with a mutual termination, so long as you’re willing to do all you can to get someone in ASAP by allowing inspections.