lol you know how you hear of property investors going…..screw it all I’m going to sell and put the lot into shares where I don’t have the headaches…..lol had one of those days today.
Can anyone tell me if the advice I’m getting from my property manager is correct under NSW tenancy laws?
Summary of facts;
We have a small 2br investment property in Petersham, Sydney.
$540pw been rented out by the same tenants for about 4 years.
In the past every time we ran the lease out we would sign another 1 year lease which they signed before the old one ran out.
Their last lease ran out a few months ago and have been month to month since (which we knew about and were happy with as we were committing to a new IP and didn’t want a potential “break period” happening when we didn’t have the cash to have two empty apartments along with the big upfront deposit we just paid).
Now that the new IP is settled and a new tenant is installed we wanted to get the tenants in Petersham to “re-up” to a new 1 year lease.We asked the PM to send the tenants a new 1 year lease.
The tenants have come back and said No they are not prepared to sign a new lease and want to stay on month to month and are probably moving out in the new year.
Here is where I need advice on.
I found out that the today that in order to give the tenants notice to cancel the month to month and get new tenants we need to give them 90 days notice…..fair enough, its long but to uproot and find a new place ok (though the irony that they can vacate with only 21 days notice is mildly amusing eg I have to give them 90 days but they only have to give us 21 days notice….hmmm).
Here is the kicker though….the moment we give them notice they can vacate eg 1 day or 89 days later with zero notice at all. Just drop the keys off at the office and say….please send us a refund check for the balance of our rent.
Once you give them their 90 days notice, they can leave at any time, leaving us scrambling to find replacement tenants.
Is this correct?
How can the NSW tenancy laws be so skewed towards tenants?
How if we give them 90 days notice can they then give zero notice?
Looking forward to feedback if any other NSW landlords have been in a similar situation.
lol…nope nobody?
The PM should have advised on this – that’s probably why they only charge 5.5% :)
Periodic leases should very rarely be entered into as they don’t offer the stability or security of fixed leases. Its 90 LL / 21 TNT for a reason – it’s still their home for the period of the agreement. Can’t just make people homeless because you feel like it. This is very similar across all states.
So, you have 3 options only
1) offer a fixed lease if they want to stay
2) offer a vacate notice
3) Keep them on periodic.In hindsight, probably should have kept them on a lease?
D.T. | DT Property Management
http://www.dtproperty.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeAdelaide Property Management - whole Adelaide metro
@dt yep the PM did give me the same advice as you…..I’m just checking in for advice with the group if there is something else we can do :P
And yes in hindsight maybe we should have chosen otherwise, though not sure as at the time made sense as didn’t want to be in a situation where we had two properties empty.
Plan is now to wait until Christmas/NY is finished, give them 60 day notice for a 8% rent bump once our PM returns from break and then wait for them to give the 21 days notice and market the property at the 4% rent bump we wanted them to sign up for the original 1 year fixed lease at.
Just find it weird that LL has to wear the risk of an empty property eg should be matching notice OR at least 21 days notice if after the 90 days is given that they can come back anytime and start the 21 day clock.
Will be making sure in the future that we are re-upping the 1 year fixed leases 64 days out to the day.
Thank for responding though @dt.
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