what happens with breaking a lease?

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Question - what happens with breaking a lease? Does the new tenant 'take over' the remaining portion of the lease left (ie if it were a 12 months lease and the person moved out 10 months into it, there would be 2 months for the new person to have), or does the new person just have a brand new fresh lease of 6/12 months?

 

(I'm asking this out of glimmer of hope with regards to short term rental when we get there, but don't think the first scenario is likely btw lol).

[Hayshake]

Yes you guessed right, a person taking over the lease is expected to take out a new period which may be 3, 6 or 12 months, most likely 12 months.

When you break a lease, you are responsible for the rent until somebody else takes over the property or your lease period ends, which can work out very expensive. A lesson here, if you think you may have to break a lease, make sure that the property you rent is very good and easily rentable.

We looked at a rental 3 years ago, which the person was desperate to get somebody to take over the lease, as they had either bought or rented another property. However it was a very old property, and seemed a bit grotty, so I guess they would have to pay the rental until the end of their lease period.

[RockDr]

There has been a precedent where the court judged that if a house took more than four weeks to rent out again, there was obviously something wrong with either the house or the rent level, so the tenant breaking lease couldn't be held responsible for that. (i.e. you shouldn't have to pay more than four weeks rent when you break lease)

[soo_the_panda]

Hello - the rental agency/property manager also has to make 'every reasonable effort' to fill the property - I broke a lease last year when I bought a home with 6 months still left on my lease.

 

The rental I was leaving was reasonably priced, in a great area (central Glenelg) and in great condition - there were also no other comparable properties available at that time. It took three weeks to fill which wasn't bad. The agent I used was pretty useless - I really had to push her to ensure she was holding open inspections, making sure the ad was online once I had informed her in writing I was leaving etc.

 

To speed things up, I added my own adverts onto other websites (gumtree etc) and showed interested people round and gave them application forms that the agent left for me to give out to interested 'friends.' In the end it was someone I had found rather than someone who contacted the agent that signed a new lease.

 

Also - please consider the owner/investor - if you know you will most likely be there only a short time, be honest if possible! I also know all too well how it feels to have a shortfall when your home loan is due on your investment property because your tenant has left without reasonable notice...

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

With you soo - I was asking from the other side of it though - ie taking over someone else's broken lease. It must be a nightmare having rental property, especially in an economy like Aus where you take a loss on the rental, I'm such a goodie goodie I've no concept to be honest of leaving people in it (tbh, breaking a lease isn't really something I was ever aware you could possibly do, it seems rather strange to me but there you go).

 

We are just trying desperately to find a way to minimise costs when we get there as OH is complaining we are haemorrhaging money when we get there, and we are only going to be staying a few weeks twiddling our thumbs before we take of for many months, so he is rather reluctant to spend any more than we really really have to. (I have tried to explain that the way the market it, whether we stay in a backpackers or a short term place, we really really have to spend a few K on staying for the few weeks we have to in Adelaide. So I'm trying to find ways we can reduce it and save some of our precious travelling monies lol).