Hi all,
This may be a silly question as it is my first rental, but I am hoping to break a 12 month lease at the 11 month mark. Looking at all the fees involved – including potentially paying rent up to the end of the lease anyway – is there no point in breaking lease this far into the contract? It seems the costs are greater than physically vacating a month early but officially ending the contract at 12 months. Sorry if this is much simpler than I'm making it out to be.
Looking at all the fees involved – including potentially paying rent up to the end of the lease anyway
With one month to go, just give notice and pay out the remaining month of the lease.
Its going going to be WAY cheaper than the fees for breaking the lease and you'll still be up for paying the lease anyhow until they find a replacement to take over, so you might end up paying fees to break it and 4 weeks rent anyhow, so its just a silly risk it so close to the end.
Its not uncommon to have a 2-4 week overlap anyhow when moving houses. Allows for moving the stuff over and cleaning of the old place etc.
I wouldn't try to break it early. Use the extra time to be able to move your stuff really slowly - you can do lots of trips with a trailer or book a removalist for when it is cheapest instead of having to stump up whatever they want to charge. You might end up breaking even plus less stress, if you can move slowly. If the extra month is December, you can even have your family over for Christmas and have extra accommodation for them! Then use them as manpower to help you move!
Look at your lease documents, and see how much notice you have to give within your lease, make sure that lines up with the exact end of your lease so you don't accidentally end up paying for an extra fortnight or month.
this.
having to find a decent rental at short notice = hellish stressful experience
As others have said, Just give notice you won't be continuing after 12 months.
If you find another place it's fine to sign the lease now. The entire cleaning and moving process normally take a while anyway.
Pay the month, you are liable for it and its not worth finding someone to take over a one month lease.
Hey you could consider "assigning" the lease to someone else. Smaller fee (ours was a couple of hundred). Look up the Tennant's union website - or give them a call.
Just pay it and vacate early. You don’t want to be living there when they hold open for inspections to find a new tenant.
You haven't mentioned why you want to break the lease.
If you're having to move overseas or something immediately, you're better off notifying the real estate agent and paying that extra month's rent.
If you're moving to another property, it's good to leave some overlap time so you don't have to rush moving.
Your lease would say that if you were to break early, you'll need to pay the advertising costs, break fees, and continue to pay the rent until (subject to the end of your lease) someone else signs up to move in. It'll probably take a month to get someone in anyway, so no point paying the advertising fees for nothing. In some instances, the advertising fee can be proportioned to the amount of time you have remaining on your lease, but that's not by default. You'll have to argue etc… which isn't worth it at this point because you'll still need to pay the rent until someone moves in.
What does your lease agreement say?
I would just pay up the extra month.
Give notice now and move out earlier if need it.