Tenant didn’t vacate (2024)

I got very interesting case. One of my investment properties in South Brisbane got tenant lease expired a week ago. The tenants were average and young couple with a baby. They stopped paying rent a week before tenancy expire date. New tenant wanted to move within couple of days.

Now the situation is previous tenant didn’t move out. New tenants pulled out the application and they were very stressful to find new house. I am sure they can find easily.

Any of you encountered same situation? What can I do for existing tenant? It is highly renovated house. They are not black listed tenants though...But they will be in future..

How on earth did that happen? Who is managing the property? @Tom Rivera have you ever seen this before?

Did the Lessor/Agent give them a Form 12 Notice to Leave or did the Tenant give a Form 13 Notice of Intention to Leave? If not, their tenancy has simply switched from a fixed term to a periodic lease. Never take a Tenants word for anything - always give a notice, always.

If a Form 12 was given or a Form 13 was received, the next step is an urgent application to QCAT for a termination order & warrant of possession (this will take 6-10 weeks to be heard).

If no Form 12/13 was given/received, and you want them out, you need to start the eviction process from scratch - Form 12 (2 months notice), then QCAT if they don't vacate when due.

Nb. The tenant is liable to pay rent up until the termination date ordered by QCAT or the notice period on the Form 12/13 given/received (2 months / 2 weeks respectively for a periodic tenancy). If they don't pay/money owing - loss of rent claim on your landlords insurance policy + TICA warning letter after 14 days in arrears + TICA lodgement after a further 7 days if not remedied, then also submit a claim to Barclay MIS (debt collectors) to go after them in parallel to your QCAT and insurance claim.

Its not that uncommon. This is the danger of signing up a new tenant - ive seen cases where compensation is paid to new tenant as werent able to move in. I assume they were given proper notice to go?

In Victoria you can pre empt this by logging a vcat case prior to them going. Unfortunately in other states you can't log it until the day after the lease finishes.

Eg will probably go similar to this here timeline in SA:

• Lease finishes 1st July
• Log tribunal for vacant possession 2nd july
• Get a hearing 2 - 4 weeks later depending on how busy tribunal is.
• Tribunal gives them X days to vacate depending on reason, sob story, circumstances, etc. (I've personally seen anything from 4 to 21).
• If they still dont move then arrange bailiff who'll remove them.
• Bond / insurance / barclay claim as per MMs post above.

They are not big players but small business with 10 people.I know them quite well. They are ok.

Thanks MM. I believe agent gave Form 12. Agent sent renewal notice and they mentioned they are vacating. That is how it started. I will check with agent whether any exchange of form 12/13.

I didnt take insurance for loss of rent. So possibly that will be out of pocket. Can't PM take it from bond, if anything left? It look cleaning bill will be reasonable too.

QCAT is a long process. My PM also mentioned. Bit unusual case though..

This was my first thought as well.

Its a pretty common thing that has some textbook solutions and procedures that should be applied.

What sort of PM wouldn't know how to deal with this? Or think its particularly unusual?

PM knew the procedure well, they explained me but all of them are very lengthy procedure. PM believe they will leave in couple of days as per the tenant advise. Last week also they agreed then changed the date again. I don’t get the full drama what is going on.

In the circumstances described I would say it is, thankfully, fairly unusual or uncommon. Tenants not paying rent, leading to a notice to vacate, and not vacating on the date is not particularly unusual. A tenancy going ok all the way through, notice to vacate given (by either party), seemingly on track and then a week out stopping rent and just not vacating does not happen often.

It is a small risk but a risk nonetheless on every vacate. The owner or PM really have no control over whether the tenant actually vacates on the required day. Fortunately the majority do.

I would say you are very lucky the new tenants voluntarily withdrew (assuming they had signed a lease). In an ideal world you wouldn't sign a new lease until you had secured vacant possession. In reality, we know this costs vacancy which of course happens to be one of the number one concerns of owners.

A good analogy might be driving your car through an intersection with traffic lights. When you drive through on a green a light you are operating on the assumption that other people will stop at the red light. 99.99% of the time they do, but on those occasions when they don't the outcome is often very messy....

- Luke

Thanks Luke. Sorry I have to correct myself. The new tenants paid bond and not signed the contract yet. Their application was approved by my PM and they paid deposit.

Wait what, the PM didn't check vacancy however accepted bond and no signed contract from another party..

What the hell is going on?

Yes, isn’t it standard procedure? Paying deposit? Later that will be transferred as bond once the tenancy agreement is signed. I can’t remember what exact procedure is as I didn’t rent few years. I guess they should have followed the procedure. The original issue remains unresolved yet. All I am doing is checking all insurance clauses and ensure what covers what is not.

The money isn't the issue... Your PM didn't check if it was vacant or not... Proceeded to accept another tenant and .. where's your condition report?

I don't think the issue is that they didn't check it was vacant, it is that the tenant didn't vacate. Assuming all the correct notices and notice periods were applied, the PM hasn't really done anything wrong on face value. Accepting an application, even signing a new lease, prior to the current tenant vacating is very common. However, as mentioned in previous posts, it does come with risk.

Not really sure of the relevance of the condition report to the current situation if you could elaborate?

Make sure regardless of what the tenant is saying that the appropriate actions and notices are being undertaken by your PM. They should be operating on the assumption the tenant is not leaving right up until they have vacant possession.

- Luke

So you're saying that it's fine not to check of the previous tenant has actually left. And by condition report I mean the fact that the on hasn't inspected the property..

How do you know that it wasn't left in a complete unlivable state, but yet you've signed another agreement... Please that's a bit stupid.

I think you're misunderstanding the situation. The new tenant didn't turn up with the moving truck to find the current tenant still living there. The current tenant just didn't vacate on the required date.

Again as stated above it is a small risk on every tenant changeover. This is why only a very brave agent will do a next day changeover. Normally a gap is planned, the length of which will be determined by how the tenancy has been going, state of the property at routines etc.

In a perfect world you would allow plenty of time and not sign a new agreement until you have vacant possession, the exit has been completed, and any rectification actions have been complete. This will however result in substantially more vacancy. The incoming tenant is also looking for security of move in date to make their own arrangements. They are not just going to wait around in the hope it pans out ok and you give them a confirmed move in date.

- Luke

Thanks Luke.

Mate, Have you ever rented any property? I rented about 6-7 times, PM requested the bond money as an advance + 2 weeks rent before the previous tenant evacuate. Is there any rule state otherwise?

When we become land lord we don’t get involve with the procedure as PMs take care.

Again, not talking about money. Thought I made that clear?

And yeah I'm a renter and a landlord..