Landlords must provide you a written notice in due time with a valid reason if they want you to vacate the property. The nature of the notice, the exact cause for vacating the property and when the notice needs to be delivered will vary.
A notice can ask for immediate vacating of the property, it may be delivered fourteen days in advance, sixty or a hundred and twenty days and it could be at the end of the fixed term lease.
- An immediate notice to vacate a property is only tenable according to law when there has been serious damage to the property, if the tenant has consciously and intentionally caused the damage, if the tenant commits a civil or criminal offense and if the safety of people living around the property is endangered. Tenants can still file a complaint with the tribunal and the landlord will have to furnish evidence to support the cause for immediate eviction.
- A 14 days or fortnight notice is usually issued when the tenant has not paid the rent, the rental bond has not been paid, the tenant has sublet the property to someone without the consent of the landlord, if the property has been used for any illegal act, if any clause in the lease agreement has been breached, if a compliance order from the tribunal has been violated, in case of a breach of responsibility or duty, an offence committed in the public or common area of the property and any misleading representation made to the landlord at any time of the tenancy or at the very outset.
- A two month notice is usually sent when a fixed term lease agreement doesn’t exist. The end of the notice period is the termination date for the tenancy. Such a notice cannot be challenged if the property will be demolished, be transformed to a business or a permanent residence, the landlord would start living in the property, the rental property needs to be renovated, repaired or reconstructed and if it is to be used for any public purpose. The landlord will not be able to rent out the property again if the reason is a lie or misleading but there is little tenants can do to counter such a notice.
- A 120 day notice is only applicable in period agreements where there is no fixed term of the lease.
