Lease Insights – October 2022
What does a landlord or their agent have to do at the end of a Lease to end it lawfully?
The short answer is nothing!
There is obviously a lot of misinformation and confusion out in the community because we are constantly hearing comments such as “do I have to give the tenant notice?” and “how can I get them to leave?” etc.
Firstly, it is very important to note that we are only talking about premises that are not classified as in a retail shopping centre as there are separate rules that apply to Shopping Centres.
One of the fundamental principles of a lease is that it must grant the tenant the right to occupy a premises for a specific period of time. Once that time is up, and provided that the tenant does not have any rights to renew, the tenant no longer has any right to be in the premises. No notice is required to be given. So, in a perfect world they would vacate prior to the lease ending, hand you back the keys and say thank you very much for being a great landlord.
Unfortunately, this often does not happen so we provide in our leases that if the tenant remain in the premises after the lease has ended, they become a monthly tenant and at any time you (or they) can give a months’ notice and end the tenancy.
Again, once a tenancy has ended the tenant has no right to be in the premises and should vacate.
As always please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.
Steve Evans