The Residential Tenancies Act has a lot more rules about terminating a lease than it does about creating one.
What is important is that if your notice is not in the correct form and served the correct way your lease will not be terminated. Your right to occupy the property will continue and so too your responsibility to pay rent.
Formal Notice
We use a version of the notice that Fair Trading have available. It’s available on our website following the link below:
https://jacksonrowe.com.au/contact/#notice-to-vacate
This Notice to Terminate a Tenancy Agreement needs everyone who is on the lease to sign. If one tenant doesn’t sign, then the law says they are not vacating, and they will continue as a tenant and be wholly responsible for the property and the rent.
To be valid notice, it must:
Be in writing
Be signed and dated (pen and ink)
Include the address of the property
Nominate the date you will be vacating the property and returning keys
Minimum Notice and Service of Notice
These are covered in the Notice to Terminate Tenancy Agreement form. Some things we need to point out.
Service means how you get the notice to us. There are only a few ways you can do it, and they are listed on the form. The day you email us or come into our office to deliver it does not count as part of the notice period. If notice is served today, the notice period starts from tomorrow.
Notice periods are minimum periods; you can give longer notice periods if that suits you. You can also give a notice period that is shorter, but you will be responsible for rent up to the end of the notice.
We appreciate these rules can seem a little tedious, but they are the law and are intended to protect both of us.
If you want to talk any aspects of your move through, give us a ring.
Author: Stephen Jackson
