QLD - Lease break or not?

Hi All,

I just have a question around breaking a lease..

We signed a 9 month lease which expires on the 31st May. We have put in an application for a new rental, which is available on the 18th May.

I had a brief chat to the property manager of my current property who told me that I would need to “break lease” and would liable for a lease break fee, which is 1 weeks rent + GST.

My understanding is that lease break fee is to cover the advertising costs associated with finding a new tenant, but given we are breaking lease 12 days before the current lease expires SURELY the agent / owner would be looking for a new tenant BEFORE we actually vacate, whether on the 18th May (when new rental is available) OR the 31st May (when lease expires)?

I can understand if I had broken a lease half way through my lease, but its only 12 days! Its virtually impossible to time it right so that you move out of your current rental (31 May) to walk into a new rental the next day as this would be the ONLY way you could avoid paying a lease break fee.

What your thoughts?

Cheers,
Robbie

 

If its 12 days left you could just pay the rent for those 12 days and there wouldn't be any further obligation after that. UNLESS, you've already signed a renewal with them?

 

Good point, but i have not extended the lease. Today I told the property manager that i dont plan to extend past the current fixed term.

My question then is.. if they find a new tenant who can move in on the 18th May, should i still pay the rent for 12 days days if they have a new tenant in place when I vacate?

 

Not relevant to you if or when another tenant starts. Pay your rent and water up to your lease ending date and leave the property clean and tidy. Thats it.

Also, ensure you have the correct amount of notice. They can charge you rent in lieu of notice here, not sure if same there.

 

Generally the fixed costs of the break lease liability (such as letting fee) need to be apportioned as a % of the lease left when the new lease for the new tenant starts.

So in the OP's case, it would be 12 days/275 days or so - something like 4.3% of the week's fee.

And that's only if a new tenant is found starting the next day. If the new tenant doesn't start until after the end of the fixed term, then no fixed break lease fees should apply.

 

Thanks for the advice.. if our application gets approved and we are able to move into the new house on the 18th, we will just pay the rental for the additional 12 days.. keep it clean and take our time to move into new house, clean up old house.

 

100% agree.

The break lease fee is supposed to be pro-rata'd towards the end of tenancy. Being that close to end of tenancy, you are realistically not liable for ANY amount of the break lease fee. There isn't an Adjudicator in the state who would agree to charge you a cent that close to end of lease.

 

Yes it’s a lease break
Yes they need to be showing mitigation of losses through prior advertising
It’s apportioned so aside from the vacancy charge, advertising and cost of letting charges would be minimal.

But it is definately a lease break.

 

As a landlord in Qld, I have let people go that close to the end particularly when I get notice. @Tom Rivera is right, lease break wouldn't fly with qcat and it wouldn't be worth trying.

 

A notice to intention to leave - form 13 is required. It needs to be issued 14 days + tip before the end of the fixed lease or it continues as a periodic lease.

 

It's normal to pay double rent for a few days, or a week when moving from one rental to another. 12 is a tad much.

If your application gets approved for the new place can you ask for it to start a week later?

 

Good advice!

 

I worked at the RTA for 8 years and can confirm most of what has been said above - no break lease fee or advertising costs should be charged to you. The only amount they can charge is rent up until the day before a new tenant is secured (or up until the day your lease expires - which ever comes first) so that the owner suffers no loss of rent.

Reason being - basically in a break lease, tenants can be charged any fees/charges that has caused the landlord to suffer a financial loss - therefore it is not fair and reasonable to ask the tenant to pay for something that the landlord will be in most cases paying themselves soon anyway (eg if you were still just vacating at the end of the lease the landlord will be paying advertising costs and a re-let fee now so no financial loss has occurred due to you moving 12 days earlier.)

Also - might be hard to check in some cases however as stated above the agent can only ask for rent up until the day before a new tenant moves in (if within your lease term) the agent cannot take double rent - if you move out on the 18th and a new tenant moves in on say the 23rd - then you only need to pay rent up to and including the 22nd. Most good agents will try and help out by leasing the property a little earlier to minimise double rent for you and also minimise a potential vacancy for the owner Hope that helps!
Jodi