Lease Transfer Fee Charged by Agent

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  cuteduck on 27/10/2015 - 20:10

  Yes.. it is a normal practice (1 week rent + lease fee). Since you break the lease early, hence the agent needs to advertise for new tenant.

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    delusioned on 27/10/2015 - 20:12

    Thanks for the reply.. I found the new tenants myself, though. There is no advertising and risk/cost except admin, which I assume is the $33 lease preparation fee on their side.

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      ms_caz on 27/10/2015 - 21:15

      +1

      It's not just about having another body to pay the rent though - it's about the quality of the tenant. The agent obviously accepted you as a quality tenant and therefore offering you the lease but just because you have found a replacement does not mean they are also a "quality" tenant. The $33 would cover the preparation and signing of a new lease document, but there could easily be an interruption to the actual tenancy for which rent would be required to be covered. The new tenants still need to be vetted (have their details followed up etc) and be presented to the landlord for approval. In this time there may in fact be a period of time where the landlord is not receiving rent for his/her property, with you having stopped payment and the new tenant yet to begin. And since it is within the period of a lease, it is something that the landlord is rightly expecting to be receiving.

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        delusioned on 27/10/2015 - 21:18

        Thank you for the reply. What you said made sense but in the same email detailing the 1 week rent we have to pay to the agent it was also stipulated that we need to pay for the rent until the tenants gets approved and move in. There is therefore no loss of income.

        Would you think charging 1 weeks' rent on top of this reasonable?

      • 

        cuteduck on 27/10/2015 - 23:16

        @delusioned: You can dispute it if you wish. There are more than one step in signing the tenant
        I wish that it is so simple - "walk in - walk out"

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  oscargamer on 27/10/2015 - 20:24

  +3

  speak to nsw fair trading or nsw tenancy agency

  real estate agents are assholes (we are both landlords and tenants)

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  chuneeperformance on 27/10/2015 - 20:38

  realtors should not charge you 1 week rent if u have found the tenant. if they do - they are in breach…

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  cowiie on 27/10/2015 - 21:20

  Just because you found new tenants does not mean that they have to accept them. They can still vett them and reject them and you will then be liable for any loss of rent.

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    delusioned on 27/10/2015 - 21:23

    I fully accept that new tenants may not be accepted and would be liable for a break in lease, like I mentioned in an earlier post.

    1. I'm already liable for the rent should the new tenants not be approved
    2. Charging me 1 weeks rent on top of finding the tenants should they be approved is a bit strange to me
    • 

      cowiie on 27/10/2015 - 21:28

      +1

      If I were you, I would call your state tenancy body in the morning to clarify if they can do that. If I were the agent, I would hold you responsible because you broke the lease and hence would charge you 1 weeks rent anyways. Sorry.

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  rambao9 on 27/10/2015 - 22:47

  You are right, they can't charge you the 1 week.

  "You cannot be charged by the landlord or agent for allowing a transfer or sub–letting, other than any reasonable expenses incurred. In most situations there is unlikely to be any expense involved."

  So reasonable expenses maybe the preparation of new lease agreement and that's about it.

  You should just be straight up with the real estate agency and walk up with that page and talk to them directly, they'll probably just ignore what they sent you just to save themselves from the hassle.

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  cassidy02 on 28/10/2015 - 08:33

  I can't speak from a residential point of view, but for commercial we charge up to $2000. We have to go through a lot of admin to check the credentials of the proposed tenant, meet with them for an interview, put detailed recommendations to the Landlord, and assist in facilitating the transfer and sale of business. This is all additional work to my normal day to day duties because a tenant has decided to transfer their lease, therefore they need to pay costs associated with this.

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    oscargamer on 28/10/2015 - 10:08

    I think the point is that they can charge what it costs them, not a random figure like '1 weeks rent'

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  PartyNextDoor on 28/10/2015 - 08:43

  +2

  Yeah don't pay the one week rent, just the admin fee to write up the new lease. If they don't accept the new tenets that's their problem not yours. Unless of course the tenets don't have enough income to make rent etc but by the sounds of it, it's already getting transferred to them so I dunno what these other people are commenting about "they don't have to accept them". I hate when people argue technicalities that don't mean shit in the real world. Look, refuse to pay - if they want to chase that one weeks rent they would have to prove they incurred a loss which they didn't.

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    Orangey on 23/04/2018 - 12:50

    I’m facing the same issue, so I can argue from a realistic perspective.
    I reckon the problem is that if you refuse to pay the transfer fee, the agent would “feel” being violated, and reject your transfer request. The agent won’t allow you successfully transfer the lease without paying the “transfer fee”.
    So, Now I’m gonna have to pay those assholes 720$ for their so called “paper work”. I’m pretty sure they just wanna slug me, and I have no choice coz I have to get rid of this lease. Feels being robbed

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  thord on 28/10/2015 - 11:15

  If it were me, I'd be sub-letting to the new tenant until february.

  Ignore the real estate, they don't need to be involved. When your lease is up in February let the tenant you were sub-letting to take over.

  No fees, no problems. Of course, since, you're sub-letting you'll be a defacto landlord in a sense, you'll need to make sure the new tenants take care of the place, at least until Feb 2016.

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  Charity on 28/10/2015 - 19:38

  Without the sugar-coating…

  they want to slug you a Grand because they "feel" inconvenienced, and don't think you should be able to walk away without some sort of penalty! Yes, even though they never lost any money in this case.

  Doesn't have to be a weeks rent per-se, they just want to get you for something! Anything! Show some ID too!

  Some people are just horrible.

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  ms_caz on 28/10/2015 - 20:22

  But wow - one week's rent is north of $1000!! For my tenants, one week's rent is anywhere between $300 - $450. I would see that as a reasonable break fee (granted I am biased!). But I can't see that the one week you would be paying would fit the definition of reasonable.