Lease Renewals

When you have a tenant that has been renting your rental property throughout the tenancy period and has:

You will most likely want them to stay on.

Therefore, the next step is to make contact with the tenant to discover their intentions when the lease expires.  They may wish to stay or they may wish to leave for various reasons.  This contact should be made a couple of months out from the lease expiry date.

You will be reminded of this by Cloudpm.

A new lease entered into or,

No new lease signed and the tenancy becomes a periodic one.

It is better for all parties, in this example, if a new lease is signed.  The next thing to consider is the amount of rent and the new lease period.

Do your research regarding any rental adjustment.  Is there justification for a rental increase?  If you wish to increase the rent, ensure you check the legal obligations relevant to your state.  Links are listed below.

Can an increase in rent scare off a good tenant?  This is something you will need to consider.  If they are not happy with say a $10 a week increase and decide to vacate, it can end up being a costly decision.  If the property remains vacant for a few weeks, that could be a loss of income of say $1600. 

That is a lot of $10 weeks to make up for.  

If the rental amount is increased for the new Tenancy period, ensure you also request the tenant to top up the amount of bond held so that it stays in line with the equivalent of 4 weeks rent.

When the lease is being prepared and offered to the tenant, take into account the time that the lease will end.  It is better for all concerned for it not to end at an inappropriate time e.g., Christmas.  If mutually agreed by all parties, there is no reason why a fixed lease term cannot be 8 months or 13 months.  They do not have to be, what is considered the norm, 6 months or 12 months.

After the lease has been fully signed by all parties, it will be filed in the cloud through the Cloudpm software.  All of your documents relating to the property are stored in the cloud.  You have easy and secure access.

https://www.rta.qld.gov.au/Resources/Fact-sheets/General-tenancy-fact-sheets/Continuing-a-fixed-term-tenancy-fact-sheet

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Tenants_and_home_owners/Being_a_landlord/Starting_a_tenancy/Completing_a_tenancy_agreement.page

https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/Renting

https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/housing/renting-and-letting/renting-privately/lease-agreements/lease-agreements-explained

https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/rental-agreements

http://www.consumer.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/123748/CBOS_Rental_Guide_V2_-_WEB.pdf

http://www.consumeraffairs.nt.gov.au/ForConsumers/ResidentialTenencies/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.tenantsact.org.au