Hi, just wanted to hear your thoughts on this? I just went to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal in SA as a tenant. I broke my lease 10 weeks before the end. The landlord advertised the property once a week in the paper for 4 weeks and then stopped. I thought he would have to advertise twice a week. He then put the property on the market to sell before our lease ran out. I thought I would have to compensate him till he relet the property or till the end of the fixed term but he never relet and started selling before the fixed term ended. He also advertised at $10 per week more rent, which I thought was a little above market rate. I don’t think rent in the area went up, I think it went down slightly. I tried to submit an RPData Rental Comparison Report as evidence but wasn’t allowed. I noted a similar property 2 doors down that rented around the same time for $20 less a week within 2 weeks, but the judge said that indicates the landlord was in the ballpark. The judge said that my renting the property for the rent it was, is enough to satisfy him that the property is at market rate and a $10 per week increase after living there for almost a year is reasonable. I told the judge that I’d suspected that the landlord was always going to sell and I have my doubts about the effort that he went to in reletting the property. I thought he advertised for 4 weeks to get our 4 weeks bond, which he did. I suggested to the judge that the landlord should provide evidence that people were actually attending opens. The landlord said a lot of people went through but only 2 showed interest. The judge asked whether he had their details but the landlord said ‘no, we never heard from them again’. I also said how the landlord painted the front of the house the week we moved out. So he waited 5 days before advertising. I still had to compensate the landlord for this period.
The whole basis of the decision was the landlord put an ad in the paper so they’re entitled to compensation. The judge said he would’ve got more if he’d continued putting the ad in the paper. As a landlord myself, I’m just stunned at how easy it would be to continue getting rent off a tenant in a break lease till I get my property ready for sale if I planned to sell.
The whole basis of the decision was the landlord put an ad in the paper so they’re entitled to compensation. The judge said he would’ve got more if he’d continued putting the ad in the paper. As a landlord myself, I’m just stunned at how easy it would be to continue getting rent off a tenant in a break lease till I get my property ready for sale if I planned to sell.