What Should I Do with This Tricky Landlord? Termination Notice

tomleonhart on 03/12/2014 - 14:10
Last edited 03/12/2014 - 14:13

Hi folks,

Just wondering what you guys would do in this situation.

We're on a periodic lease in NSW. According to fair trading website, we're entitled to 90 days notice to vacate the property.

Around 30/10/2014, the landlord rang me up directly (we rent through a real estate agent) and said he wanted the place back by 30/01/2015 and that he's doing this as a courtesy call. So he wanted us to move out within the 90 days requirements but call it a courtesy call.

We kept waiting for the termination notice from the REA for a certain date. We got nothing from REA after 1.5 months, despite my phone calls and email to the REA they got back to me with nothing. I rang the landlord up directly and asked what the date that he wanted me to move out by is, he sent me a text back a text saying he wanted the place to be vacated by 19 of Jan. I took it as my termination notice, (yes my bad).

Now the tenant of our own moved out and I said to our REA of the place we're renting that we want to move out by the 14 of Dec. She came back saying the landlord wants me to give him 21 days notice and we have to pay the 10 days difference.

So he has given verbal notice but never send the "official" notice. Until today I still haven't received the termination notice but my wife since this morning naively sent an email to the REA to "give them 21 days notice". I said to her we don't need to give notice of our own since we had been given notice.

My question is: I have the text on my phone from him saying he wanted the place back by the 19 of Jan. What is the chance of me using that text message as a termination notice I received when dealing with with Fair Trading and NCAT to get my bond back?

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Comments

  • mskeggs on 03/12/2014 - 14:22

    The landlord's original notice is defective.
    They need to give you 90 days notice in writing.
    Advise them they need to give you a legitimate notice with 90 days, so the earliest they can evict you will be start of March.
    Tell them you may be prepared to leave earlier if they can accommodate your time line.
    Leave the agent out of these dealings and see where you get.
    Your worst outcome is that your 21 days notice given to the agent stands.

    • tomleonhart on 03/12/2014 - 14:26

      Unfortunately we have to move by the 14 of December and he made it clear that he wanted us to pay for the next 21 days. And since my wife has now "given" them notice of 21 days, i'm not so sure what I can do now.

      • mskeggs on 03/12/2014 - 15:37

        Understood.
        If you have received a valid termination notice, you don't need to give them notice.
        I don't think you have. I'm not sure why you didn't insist on it.
        I think the SMS is good evidence that you are acting reasonably, and you could argue you thought it was notice.

        To be honest, I would write a letter saying you will give vacant possession on the 14th of December in line with the eviction notice the landlord sent you. I would then stop paying rent on that day.
        But you might need to argue the case at NCAT. I can't imaging the landlord would enjoy doing that over a week's rent, so they will probably let it slide.

        • tomleonhart on 03/12/2014 - 15:44

          I did ring and email the REA on a number of time but they keep ignoring me. Also the fact of having a 2 months old doesn't help :P

          I'm trying to negotiate this with the LL, if not successful we'll go to NCAT

  • hothed on 03/12/2014 - 15:03

    In this situation, if I wanted to move out on the 14th of December, I would have given notice 21 days prior.

    I don't see the issue.

    Think about it from his perspective - He now needs to advertise and find a new tennant, this takes time. You can't move out on the spot and say "see ya mate".

    • tomleonhart on 03/12/2014 - 15:09

      We never wanted to move out, the landlord wanted the place back by 19 of January. According to Fair trading, he has to give 90 days notice to us but he never did "officially". He although rang and texted to say he wants it back.

      The problem is that we took his "unofficial" phone call and text as our termination notice and now he wants us to give 21 days notice of our own.

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