Wish tenant to vacate at end of tenancy

Hi all :)

I have found heaps of advice over the past 12mths on this site but now It's time for me to ask my own question.

I have managed my own property in Perth for the past 12mths and luckily not had any dramas to speak of. I want to move back into my property when my tenants lease expires on the 5th August. What is the correct procedure? Am I required to give them 60 days notice even though it will be the end of their lease anyway?

Thanks in advance

Cindy
 
I think it's either 60 days, or you are never allowed to a terminate lease

Hi Jaycee

Yeh..I've just read that document again and now I'm wondering does that mean I have to wait until the end of the lease agreement i.e 5th Aug and 'then' give them 60 days to vacate???

Or can I give them 60 days notice at the begining of June??

Cindy
 
I am in a similar suitation, I have a tenant whos lease ends mid July, but I want to move back into the house in late November when I move back from London.

So I have to think of a way to sign them up for another 4 month lease, as if they go onto a periodic lease, and then I give them the 2 months notice in end of sept, they may find somewhere and then give me 2 weeks notice !

Any ideas

Ben
 
So I have to think of a way to sign them up for another 4 month lease, as if they go onto a periodic lease, and then I give them the 2 months notice in end of sept, they may find somewhere and then give me 2 weeks notice !

If your main plan is to have someone (anyone?) in your house paying some type of rent rather than have it empty for months (insurance risk), then why not be honest with them and say you will only renew for four months because you will be moving back in November.

Perhaps give them reduced rent for that four months. They will probably stay longer that way and move when the cheap rent runs out. I would.
 
Tough one, Ben. I like wylie's idea, except I think there's a better chance that they'll move when their lease ends (or soon after) and Ben will have the place empty for 4 months, and that'll be nigh-on impossible to fill.

I think letting the lease roll onto periodic - provided that's OK with respect to your landlords' insurance - then giving 60 days' notice is a less risky option. Six weeks' vacancy is not a huge deal, and in reality, since they won't have to hurry and have 60 days, they may be a bit more picky about their new place and use up a good portion of the 60 days looking for a new place.
 
now I'm wondering does that mean I have to wait until the end of the lease agreement i.e 5th Aug and 'then' give them 60 days to vacate???

Or can I give them 60 days notice at the begining of June??


Hi Cindy,


First off, you are asking the question at the right time - well done.


In WA here, the Landlord must give Tenants 60 days Notice, but must also allow at least 2 days postage time either way. If it all goes pear shaped, and you've only given them 60 days, they can insist, on Aug 5th when you want them out, that you didn't give them sufficient notice. You will then be forced to give them another 64 days notice. Don't fall for that nonsense like I did once. It's painful and costly....


Solicitors in WA here advise any prudent residential Landlord must allow 64 days as a minimum. Counting back from Aug 5th, your Tenants must have it confirmed in their hot little hand no later than June the 1st. You've now only got 11 days left to get your act together.


If you want to be professional about it, ensure the Notice is sent in such a way that you receive the Tenant's signature back as confirming having received the Notice within the due period, this will cost you about $ 5.00 instead of the usual 55c postage stamp, but when the **** hits the fan, you'll be very glad you spent the extra $ 4.50 to get their signature on paper at the right time.....then your butt is iron clad covered.


Good luck Cindy. :)
 
now I'm wondering does that mean I have to wait until the end of the lease agreement i.e 5th Aug and 'then' give them 60 days to vacate???

Or can I give them 60 days notice at the begining of June??
You can give them notice during the lease agreement that you're not planning to renew the existing lease. In fact, you have to; if you don't give notice in sufficient time, as per Dazz's timeline, they have an automatic right to roll onto a periodic tenancy come the 5th of August.
 
Hi Cindy,



In WA here, the Landlord must give Tenants 60 days Notice, but must also allow at least 2 days postage time either way. If it all goes pear shaped, and you've only given them 60 days, they can insist, on Aug 5th when you want them out, that you didn't give them sufficient notice. You will then be forced to give them another 64 days notice. Don't fall for that nonsense like I did once. It's painful and costly....



Hi Dazz

Thanks for your reply :)

I have just spoken to DOCEP on the Advice Line number on the RTA Form and told them the story. Interestingly I was told I have to give the tenant written notice 'of a reasonable number of days' , that the lease will not be renewed, it will not roll over into periodic lease and they must vacate the premises at the end of lease date being 5th August.

I asked if I should give 60 days but was told no, as this is not a periodic lease the 60 days are not required, just a reasonable amount of time, but was advised not to make it less than 30 days.

Again I asked "So if I gave 60 days that would be considered reasonable as that is the maximum a landlord is required to give under any circumstances?" I was told "I can advise you to give whatever you think is reasonable, but would recommend a minimum of 30 days."


Cindy
 
That word "reasonable" is annoyingly unreasonable and should be eliminated from any clause in any RTA.
The "reasonable person" test is ubiquitous within our legal system, so good luck with that!
To be safe, allow 60 days notice plus a few more days for postage just to safeguard yourself, what harm can that do??
The harm it can do is that in some circumstances, serving such a notice can allow the tenant to respond with a shorter notice to leave, potentially causing you to miss out on rent.
 
Ozperp,

The tenant iin question is on fixed term lease till AUgust 5th. How can they give 2 weeks notice to leave before this ?

According to the written RTA, assuming it is the right document 60 days is the right notice, do we ignore that ?
 
I have managed my own property in Perth for the past 12mths and luckily not had any dramas to speak of.


It sounds as though everything will go swimmingly anyway Cindy.


I don't think there is such a thing as giving too much notice. Now zip to it, and get it in their hand and signed as having been served before the 1st of June.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies :)

I was just getting geared up to do the 60 days notice to vacate on 5th Aug, but now it looks like I won't know until the end of June if I will actually need to go back to my property or somewhere else in Perth. Long story! lol

I think all I can do is as soon as I know that I 'do' need to go back to my property give them notice, if there is reasonable time' before the tenancy ends, or give them 60 days notice, even if that does run on after August 5th.

I guess I will just have to see how it all pans out and when I can make my decision on where I need to go. Worst case I guess is that it goes into periodic lease after August 5th and I have to give them 60 days notice from then. I also can't afford to move out of my house here in Albany until I know for sure that they have vacated the Perth house, otherwise I will have no where to go!

One way or another I will get back to Perth in the end! lol

From a very windy, very wet Albany!

Cindy
 
I gave my tenant 60 days notice. Not only didn't he move sooner (which I was hoping for) but delayed for another fortnight and then vacated another couple of days later again (needed time to get scratches out of the floor) without doing a touch of cleaning of touching the floor. Again we had to give 48 hrs notice of the breach to allow him time to clean it himself. The final job was still poor and will need professional cleaning taking more time again.

So give the 60 days and if you end up with a few weeks vacancy, so be it.
 
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