Termination of Managing Agreement before tenant found

[ChrisA1]

The rental market is awfully slow at the moment with plenty of properties available. As a result, I am thinking of other ways to move the property - investigating VFing or just selling.

The Managing Agent agreement states that 'The agreement may be terminated by either party by thirty days' notice provided in writing provided the tenancy agreement is periodic. If the agreement is terminated in less that 12 months, two weeks rent is payable to the agent......'

Can you terminate the agreement before a tenant is found?? (and I assume pay the 2 weeks' rent and other costs - advertising fees etc). Has anyone terminated their agreement before a tenant was found??

The rental manager is great, and we are doing what we can to keep the property in line with other rentals in the area (adjusting price, sweetners etc etc), it is just my impatience thinking of other ways to move the property .

Or maybe I am just being too impatient at 7 weeks in.... (there are others listed for a lot longer in the area).....

 

[Propertunity]

Can you terminate the agreement before a tenant is found??

Yes

(and I assume pay the 2 weeks' rent ...

No

and other costs - advertising fees etc).

Maybe

 

[ChrisA1]

Many thanks Propertunity, will get my thinking cap back on.

 

[MelbGal]

7 weeks vacant is a long time. I don't know the area and if thats the norm but I would be impatient too.

 

[Alex2095]

I was just in a similar situation recently- Had a property manager doing a terrible job of finding me a tenant so I called another agent in the area and asked her if I could use her instead.

I was told that I could break the agreement immediately without fees if there was no tenant yet because the agreement starts once tenancy starts

Told her (Old PM) I know longer required her services.....it was all good

 

[ChrisA1]

Yes, I also think 7 weeks is a long time. There is just a flood of properties for rent in the market at the moment, and at a bad time for finding a new tenant.

It's good to hear Alex, that you were in a similar situation. I was unsure when the rental agreement began - at signing, or when a tenant was found.

 

[Thann]

I am currently in the same boat... Property has been vacant for several weeks, and I am getting inpatient

Watching re.com.au/rent, there is movement in the market, just slowed way down.

 

[AYK]

We also had a similar experience - our managing agreement also has a similar clause. The old PM managed our property for 1.5 year and there were no tenants in the last two months. We were told that we could break the agreement immediately without fees because there is no (tenant) agreement. We changed to our new PM within a day and the old PM handed the keys without fees.

But you need to check whether the new PM can do a better job. It might be useful to interview a number of PMs to see what they can do for you.

There are a few things we have learnt from this experience:
- rentals need to meet the market …
- PM needs to be local/experienced/hard working/skilled/quick follow up - not letting potential tenants to slip away/work fast/able to sell and market the property well/know what is the appropriate rentals/good to tenants and owners alike...
- the property needs to be competitive..

Best of luck.

 

[ChrisA1]

Many thanks for your comments AYK.

The PM is doing a good job and doing everything they can (from the information they are passing back to me). It is simply because the market has slowed so much and I was looking to offload this property at some stage anyway. If I ended this agreement, it would be because the property would be up for sale (rather than being advertised with another agent). But the decision to sell also needs to be investigated to make sure I'm not making that in haste.