Quick PM question

The tenants in our IP were due to move out at the middle of next month and we are going to move back in. I gave them six weeks notice about this and offered to allow them to end the lease upto 2 weeks early if they found a suitable place before this time so they didn't have to pay double rent. This would be in our benefit too as there are some renovations we'd like to do before moving back in which would take this amount of time.

They notified the PM that they found a place quite early and wanted to move in here about 4 weeks before the end of our lease - this is tomorrow. My PM asked if this was ok last week. I replied that it is fine for them to move out at this time but I also asked what would happen to the rent as they have paid until the end of this month (I did not want to refund any rent so would have made the lease end at the end of the month). She read the first part of my email and notified the tenants that it is fine for them to do this. She then replies to my email today informing me that I will need to refund them the rest of the money back.

is it ok for me to reply saying that I now want to end the lease on the 30th? I am not a huge income earner and that ~$800 is quite a bit of money for us. As I said above, I would not have agreed if I knew we had to give them a refund. I thought the whole point of a PM is that they can advise you on the correct laws/practices. What do you think?

 

Any thoughts?

Alternatively I was thinking to say I will refund the money at the end of next month.

 

IIRC, once notice to vacate is given, the tenant does not need to provide further notice if they leave early. Refunding of rent can't be strung out by a month for no reason, that's why you hold a bond.

 

The notice to vacate was for the end of the lease which is in mid July. I offered to end the lease any time in the month of July without penalty/rent being charged to have access to do the reno work. They requested to leave a further 10 days before this date. The PM did not advise me of the refund being due despite me specifically asking a week ago.

My question is am I allowed to go back on the instructions/authorisation I gave to the PM in light of this new information?

 

You said quick

 

What?

 

If the PM has already told the tenants that they can leave early, under your instruction, I doubt you could go back on that - especially the day before.. thats a bit rough.

In terms of rent refund, I think you're just going to have to refund asap (don't hold onto it until the end of the month), and just 'suck it up' essentially.

Sounds like a miscommunication on your PM's side in terms of rent refund. If it were me, I would just move on, its not worth the hassle.

 

Yeah more this than anything to can do with the tenants, who the PMs have already made promises to (which are probably legally binding on you).

 

Omg, I think I have it with property investing seriously. It's just one thing after another!

I was just informed that some tiles that the previous owner of our house dropped off at the property (which I haven't been able to find anywhere and are needed for our bathroom reno so that I don't have the do a complete retile of an already new room) were not received by the tenants! I'm hoping the previous owner at least knows the brand/code so I can attempt to source them or it's going to be a very expensive re-waterproofing exercise