Tenant breaking lease:who pays re-letting fee?

[MishMash]

My tenants have been renting my house since start of November 2006. They are on a 1 year lease (approx 5 months left)

There were 3 people on the lease (single man and a couple). The couple broke up, the woman moved out however she is still listed on the lease.

The other half of the couple has now moved to another state and the remaining tenant has now called my PM saying he can't afford to rent by himself. He wishes to break the lease and pay rent until a new tenant is found. My PM has told him to put this in writing so she can act upon it.

She advised me yesterday that there would be a re-letting fee once the house was advertised and a new tenant was found. I asked whether the tenant should be responsible for paying the re-letting fee (one weeks rent=$240), and she responded that the tenant would be responsible for paying a portion of the re-letting fee depending on how many weeks they had left on the lease.

My question is, why should I have to pay any of the re-letting fee when the tenant is the one breaking the lease? Can anyone advise whether this is normal procedure.

Thank you

 

[firstmillion]

My tenants have been renting my house since start of November 2006. They are on a 1 year lease (approx 5 months left)

There were 3 people on the lease (single man and a couple). The couple broke up, the woman moved out however she is still listed on the lease.

The other half of the couple has now moved to another state and the remaining tenant has now called my PM saying he can't afford to rent by himself. He wishes to break the lease and pay rent until a new tenant is found. My PM has told him to put this in writing so she can act upon it.

She advised me yesterday that there would be a re-letting fee once the house was advertised and a new tenant was found. I asked whether the tenant should be responsible for paying the re-letting fee (one weeks rent=$240), and she responded that the tenant would be responsible for paying a portion of the re-letting fee depending on how many weeks they had left on the lease.

My question is, why should I have to pay any of the re-letting fee when the tenant is the one breaking the lease? Can anyone advise whether this is normal procedure.

Thank you

Hi,

When we were renting a place in Adelaide and had to break the lease, our property agent charged us the proportionate reletting costs, incl. reletting fees, internet listing charges etc.

Cheers

 

[Glucose]

Surely the tenant should be responsible?? Otherwise what's the point of having a lease? However, with the way tenancy laws are these days, they seem to be able to get away with anything! Is there a pm on the forum who can give us the low down?

 

[caz]

My understanding is that they pay a % depending on how much of their lease is remaining.
You would have had to pay a reletting fee in 5 months anyway so they really only owe you the extra expense, not the entire fee.

In some ways it is good for you as the tenant will cover any vacancy and you get some subsidy in reletting the property.

 

[buzzlightyear]

A tenant of mine recently left prior to their lease expiring and they were charged the full letting fee.

There is a duty to keep the loss to a minimum however, so if you do not make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant you there could be a case that the Tribunal could reduce the fee. I would have thought this would only occur in very small percentage of cases however.

 

[sunshine]

I have had 3 tenants break their leases in two different IPs in NSW. They were all charged full re-letting fee (1/2 weeks rent) and also lease fee $16.50 as well as pay the rent until the new tenant moved in. The shortest was 3 days rent and the longest was 1 week.

I don't think you should be out of pocket at all.

Sunshine

 

[Xenia]

There is a specific formula to go buy to determine how much of the re-letting fee the tenant pays. It is based on how long the lease agreement was for and how many months it was breached by. Your PM should be able to calculate it for you.
The portion of advertising costs paid by the tenant are also calculated on based on the same formula but in SA, the GST is calculated differently for re-letting and advertising costs.
again, that's the pm's job!

 

[liverpoolharryk]

We always charge the tenant the re letting fees upon breaking of a lease.

 

[Bombtrack]

The break lease charges will be printed in the details section of your lease.

Generally the tenant will be responsible for a pro-rata amount for the letting fee. Eg Tenant stay's for 6months out of a 12month lease, landlord and tenant split the letting fee 50/50.

The tenant is generally also responsible for advertising, and rent up untill a new tenant moves into the property.