Breaking fixed term tenancy
Hi
Sorry I’m new to all of this so hopefully I provide enough information and make sense.
But recently I split with my partner and could no longer afford to pay the rent on 1 income. So I have had to break the lease that ends in November. I have lived there for over a year.
The ad has been up for over a month and The property manager had some viewings while I was still living there (3 people viewed it while I lived there) and then a couple more since I moved out (I think 2 maybe 3 people in the last 3 weeks)
In my lease agreement it says I have to continue paying rent until they find a new tenant but this is taking longer than I can afford. I had to move out because I couldn’t afford it and now I’m paying two rents for nearly a month now. I only have a few more weeks left in my savings before I won’t be able to pay for anything.
I do have cats and the house did smell of cat pee but he never expressed how bad until I was all moved out. (I don’t have a sense of smell so I wasn’t sure) I got a second cleaner to go in there and clean it again and also got the carpets done 3 times because there was cat hair in it.
I asked my property manager if he could talk to the landlords and ask if they would consider a break lease fee instead but he said they have already dropped the price from $590 a week to $540 a week (which I will need to pay the difference once they find someone) and that the landlords will also lose out on money. He said he also needs to push back and say that there was a smell and I’ve been slow getting it fixed which isn’t true. He told me there was a little smell so I bought an infuser and had lavender smells in each of the rooms and then as soon as I was all moved out I hired the cleaners to remove the smell 3 days after he told me that it was still there and he now confirms it’s gone.
I am unsure what to do. He even said himself it’s weird people aren’t applying to view the house. I have heard of tenancy tribunal but I’m unsure if I’m eligible. Does anyone have any advice on what I could do?