Avoid These Costly Mistakes When Issuing Notice to Leave

Wondering how to navigate the complexities of ending a tenant's agreement without stepping into legal pitfalls? 

This episode promises to equip you with the essential knowledge to properly issue a notice to leave, ensuring compliance and fairness for both tenants and property owners. 

Join Samantha Eason, as she breaks down the critical two-month notice period, recent reforms eliminating the "without grounds" option, and the importance of proactive communication to prevent tenancies from becoming periodic. 

Sam will guide property managers and investors through each step—from sending new lease agreements promptly to maintaining transparent dialogue with tenants, and avoiding a lease agreement from going periodic.  Property owners, your timely responses to lease renewal recommendations are crucial, and we'll discuss why your role is indispensable in this process.

Have you ever wondered why certain agencies mishandle essential property management processes? We'll explore the reasons behind these missteps, whether it's due to a lack of understanding, resources, or staffing issues. 

Want us to discuss something else? Text us your burning questions and topics you want covered in upcoming episodes. 

If you have any questions or scenarios you would like us to discuss on an upcoming episode, please email samantha.eason@exclusivelymanaged.com.au or visit https://www.exclusivelymanaged.com.au/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Properly Issuing Notice to Leave
• 8:32 Property Managers' Common Mistakes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

Hi, it's Samantha Eason here with another episode on Talking Property Management, and today we will be discussing how it and why it is important to properly issue a notice to leave when you are wanting to end your tenant's agreement. If you have a tenant that has a lease due on the 1st of October, we have to provide a minimum of two months notice to have that tenancy agreement either ended. But it also means that we have to provide two months notice if we want that tenancy or that tenant to vacate at the end of their agreement. It is important to note we can issue a notice for various reasons unremodeled, breaches, property sale, non-livability but with this episode we will be talking about issuing a notice to leave and what your property manager should be doing, and I know that there are still a lot of agencies that haven't adopted this best practice, which is ridiculous if you ask me. But the notice to leave, the form 12, it's a crucial document for property managers and owners when it's time to ask tenants to vacate the property or end a current agreement, and I'll go into more detail a little bit later by what I mean with the current agreement. I'll provide you some experiences that I've experienced and why it's important that we must follow this process.

Speaker 1: 2:11

The form 12 must be used in accordance with the proper notice periods, and what that means is it cannot end on a Sunday and it cannot end on a public holiday. It actually makes it invalid, and if you do have to go to QCAT, you will be thrown out for not providing the correct notice. To avoid the tendency from becoming periodic, it's best practice to provide the notice to leave the Form 12 two to three months before the end of a fixed-term agreement. This gives tenants ample time to either re-sign a new lease or prepare to vacate, and what I mean by that is they removed the without grounds notice option from the Form 12 when they did the last reforms, and this means that we now have to provide evidence as to why we're ending that agreement. So if it is for non livability, maybe the change of the use of the property, the owners moving in or the family members moving in, and then there's also renovations, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 3:26

But in this process and the reason why you need to do it properly is if you have a tenant that is not happy with maybe the lease that you sent them in the amount and the owner, and you cannot come to a negotiation If you've provided that notice two months at the very least or earlier, so it's more than two months notice that tenant doesn't sign that new lease. This stops their agreement from being periodic and what the property manager should be doing is that they should be sending through the new lease and advising that to the tenant. They've got seven days to sign the lease. If they don't sign the lease within seven days, you can then enforce the notice to leave that was previously issued. You've given them ample time. If there are negotiations, you just reiterate and communicate with the tenants as required. But I have had this where tenants naturally assume, because they reiterate and communicate with the tenants as required. But I have had this where tenants naturally assume, because they are not happy with the new lease terms, that their new lease will go periodic. The notice to leave that our agency exclusively managed has sent stops that from happening and we are able to, I guess, advise the tenant that we can proceed to QCAT and court to obtain a warrant of possession to have them vacate, provide evidence that you know they won't sign the new lease. We've tried negotiating. We simply can't. This is the situation that we're in. I have had this recently in the last couple of months, where, in adapting this process, the best practice stops these concerns.

Speaker 1: 5:02

When a property manager issues a notice of leave correctly, it ensures clarity and fairness for both parties. Tenants are given the opportunity to re-sign a new lease or they can provide their two weeks notice and advise that they're planning to vacate. Tenants are only required to provide two weeks notice, which is why it's incredibly important that when you are starting the lease renewal process or while your property manager is, they keep on top of those tenants that aren't communicating back and signing. Keep on top of those tenants that aren't communicating back and signing. It is also incredibly important that property owners respond very quickly to the lease renewal recommendation email that they receive from their property manager. The amount of times that this process doesn't work is because property owners aren't acting quick enough and they don't respond. As property managers, we legally can't offer a new lease unless we have what is recommended in writing.

Speaker 1: 6:08

By following the best practice guidelines, property managers and owners, as well as tenants, can help ensure a smooth and efficient process and ensuring compliance with all tenancy regulations, as well as our tenancy laws. You have to remember that a fixed term agreement cannot end early. Unless it's been mutually agreed, the notice to leave that an agent or an owner can provide to the tenant can be provided up to one day before the end of the agreement. So if they have an agreement that ends on the 1st of October, they've got till the day before to provide that notice. However, that means that there's 30 days, not 60 days, that that tendency is continuing, but it doesn't allow the tendency to be periodic. And I have found so many situations where other property managers have left this risk open that they either don't follow up their lease renewals appropriately, they don't issue the notice at all, which makes the tenancy go periodic if those tenants aren't signing.

Speaker 1: 7:24

And this has been a process that we've had in our legislation for 12 months now. So it's not difficult. It's coming up to 12 months. It's not difficult to have a property manager work for you in their best capacity to ensure that this is the best process and if it's followed properly, you basically are leaving it all up to the tenant. You can either sign a new lease at the rent amount or the owner and yourself can negotiate if required. Otherwise you will have to vacate. Most tenants will miss the notice to leave. It's all down to the communication that the property manager sends ongoing, whether it's hi, look, we've sent you a lease renewal. We haven't heard back from you. We do require this to be signed within the seven day period. If it's not signed within the next 48 hours, the lease agreement will be void and we will be issuing enforcing the notice to leave that has previously been sent on this date.

Speaker 1: 8:33

It's that process that works for owners, and countless agencies are not doing that correctly. I don't know if it's they don't understand why it's so important, they don't have the resources or the staff that can keep up, or if it just comes down to the property manager at the end of the day, but it is not the process that is followed through, naturally, and it's one of the biggest risks and mistakes that property managers make for property owners. Our next episode will be leaning into more questions from property owners and questions that we are getting that people need more information on and a better understanding. So if there is anything you would like, you can now text us to let us know and we can go from there and discuss what we can. But other than that, thank you for listening to another episode of Talking Property Management. I'm Samantha Eason. I'm the principal and licensee of Exclusively Managed. We are located in Brisbane and are able to look after your investment property. Thank you.