Major damage to your rental property - Information for tenants

If the house has been destroyed or is unfit to live in, you can:

• approach the landlord to reach an agreement to end the lease; or 
• give your landlord a notice of intention to immediately end the lease.

The most practical approach is to give notice to your landlord or their agent. 

If you have documentation from the landlord or their agent agreeing that the tenancy has ended, you are not required to give notice. 

If the house is still intact but you no longer wish to live there, you must negotiate with the landlord to end the lease. Any agreement must be confirmed in writing
between the parties. 

If the landlord does not agree to terminate the lease, you can end a periodic (month-by-month) lease by giving the landlord or their agent a 21-day written notice of intention to vacate.

If you wish to end a fixed term lease before the expiry date and the landlord does not agree, you can seek an order through the Magistrates Court for the termination under a relevant section of the legislation.

You may be required to compensate the landlord for out of pocket expenses associated with the early termination of the lease, including lost rent, re-advertising costs and any re-letting fee.

If there is a dispute, contact Consumer Protection. 

Contact your landlord or the agent as soon as possible after the issue has been found. 

For general repairs, the landlord should have the issue assessed and initiate the works to remedy the situation as soon as possible. 

Issues relating to the property’s essential services of electricity, gas, water including supply of hot water, functioning refrigerator if provided with the property, and sewerage, septic tank or other waste water management, are considered to be urgent repairs. The remedy action must be initiated within 24 hours of being advised of the issue.

If the issue will expose a person to injury, damage the property or cause you undue hardship, these are also considered to be urgent repairs and the landlord must initiate works within 48 hours of being notified.

If the landlord fails to take any action, you can serve a notice to the landlord for the repairs to be carried out as soon as practicable.

With the urgent repairs, you can employ a suitably qualified repairer to carry out works to fix the issue to the minimum standard, if you cannot reach the landlord to advise them of the issue or they fail to take action to initiate the works when notified.

Please be aware that there may be delays: it may be difficult to get tradespeople to your home as many properties may need repair after a disaster.

Avoid employing tradespeople who contact you out of the blue offering to complete work at cheap rates – see the warning about travelling conmen below.

No, your landlord does not have to help you find alternative accommodation. If they do, it is an act of goodwill. The landlord is not liable for any of your relocation costs.

Contact your landlord, their agent or financial institution and ask for the direct debit to be cancelled. If this is unsuccessful or you cannot find their details,
contact Consumer Protection.

Whatever way the lease ends, your landlord should finalise the tenancy and repay the bond in the normal way.

You should expect a refund of the bond, less any mutually agreed expenses incurred by the landlord to clean or repair the property.

Emergency services may already have a cleaning program in place - contact your disaster relief centre for advice.

If there is no cleaning program, the landlord is responsible. This includes clearing debris from the external part of the property and the garden area. 

If the property is dirty because of the disaster, and it is unreasonable for you to clean it, the landlord may arrange for professional cleaning. 

If damage to the property caused by a disaster has reduced the facilities available, you should negotiate with the landlord or their agent to reduce the rent.

If you are unsuccessful, you can apply to the Magistrates Court for an assessment of what is fair rent in the circumstances. 

The utility supplier should be able to tell you when they expect to restore your service. 

Sometimes damage to the property cuts off a utility supply. Your landlord is responsible for repairing this damage so that the supply can be restored.