PREPARATION TO RENT OUT AN UNIT
Landlord asks:
What are my legal rights if the tenant refuses to pick up my unit after stamping the signed Tenancy Agreement?
What should I do if the tenant break lease during the term?
Reply:
Generally,
- Landlord and Tenant both sign Tenancy Agreement with a security deposit paid by the Tenant to the Landlord.
- Commission fee to be paid by Landlord and Tenant to their agents respectively upon closing of a contract.
- Tenant will pay his first month advance rent 3 working days upon hand over check in and before they move in.
NON PERFORMANCE BY TENANT
In case tenant fails to proceed, this can be considered as break lease as well.
Landlord has the full right to claim against the tenant according to the Tenancy Agreement.
Market practices one of these ways:
(1) Landlord forfeits the tenant's Security Deposit immediately and share the 50% of the Security Deposit with the Landlord's agent. Agent use this cost to finance his further searches of another tenant.
Agent bring in another tenant to replace the previous tenant at Similar Rent without commission.
Landlord can claim against the previous tenant the Commission and expenses incurred due to closing of this tenant and items requested by the tenant.
(2) Landlord forfeits the tenant's Security Deposit immediately and share the 50% of the Security Deposit with the Landlord's agent. This is the reimbursement to the agent's cost and expenses in searching for the previous tenant.
Agent refund 1st commission.
Agent bring in another tenant to to close as a new case, Landlord pay agent commission for the 2nd closing.
PRE-TERMINATION
In cases tenant pre-terminate the tenancy agreement, or so-call break lease, Landlord has the right to claim against the tenant the following:
(2) The tenant who breaks the lease will need to compensate to Landlord a pro-rata commission that the Landlord had incurred previously.
(3) Tenant will still be responsible to pay for the rent commitment until the end of the term as stated according to the Tenancy Agreement, or until the date line when a new tenant takes over the lease.
(4) If the new tenant's rent rate is lower than the previous Tenancy Agreement rate, the tenant who breaks the lease needs to top up the differences in between the two rate for the period involve until expiry date of the 1st Tenancy Agreement.
