lolcat

Moved into our new rental in December and have had a few people calling round looking for the owners of the place – collection agencies leaving cards, sheriffs office.

We’ve had a fair bit of mail turn up for the owners and curiosity caught the better of me – unpaid electricity and gas totaling $3500 and $800 respectively plus a fair few unpaid traffic infringements, however we found in our letter box a couple of weeks ago, a letter from People’s Choice credit union – not even in an envelope, just loose in the box; and to our surprise the landlord hasn’t paid the mortgage since December and looks like a repossession is on the cards.

We forwarded all the relevant information to the letting agents, and big surprise, they’ve had bugger all communication from the landlord since then.

We’ve signed a twelve month lease, so I guess we’re OK until that expires even if the place is repossessed and sold?

ozzieeagle

Takes a hell of a long while to catch up with these people, then you have to go through due process, so I'd say your safe for a year.

You never know though.

Tramps_mate

Not sure if rental agreements stand on a repossession. I'd be looking for a new place sharpish. Or make the bank a cheeky offer to purchase!! Haha

spouse of scouse

I doubt you have anything to worry about. Any new owner (including a bank) would find it more trouble than it was worth to end a fixed term tenancy before the due date.

Tenants Union of Victoria - advice on webpage, plus a tenants help line http://www.tuv.org.au/advice/

And....you probably already know this but you're not supposed to open other people's mail..... Just mark it 'return to sender' and stick it back in a post box.

ozzieeagle

Shouldn't say this, but "Opened accidently" combined with RTS or NATA written on resealed mail is extremely common.

Best one I've seen recently on resealed mail, was "If you send this again we will sue you, not been here for 18 months"....... Thing is it was going back to the Sheriffs office LOL !

Beoz

In NSW, any transfer of property ownership means a tenancy agreement remains in place until the end. Not sure about VIC but probably the same. You should be safe until the tenancy ends, but you might be subjected to viewings, evaluations, etc and the like if the property is sold.

Jon77

We were in a house for just 12 months when the landlord decided to put on the market, but they wanted us to stay of course.

Houses around where we were then were VERY popular with Asian buyers who would buy them and either totally gut them and do them up or knock them down and subdivide the land.

We didn't hang around to find out. My son was due to start at the local school and with limited housing stock in this popular area we had to act quickly.

We handed notice that we were vacating the property before the for sale sign even went up and we found something more suitable and stable within 2 weeks (but lots of competition!), 3 weeks we were out of there.

Depends on your family circumstances. If you have kids and you love the local school / area and there is a limited housing stock or the area is very popular than I would be pro active and see what else is in the area.

paulry

I agree, it looks like it could be a very unsettling living-in-limbo situation until the end of the lease.

Beoz

I've been through it. Greedy landlord left it viewing for 10 weeks while he took the rent. The plus side of it was he got a fraction of the price he could have because it was tenanted. He was absolutely gutted. I believe if your rental property goes on the market you can leave at will where the current and future owners are obliged to honour the tenancy.

paulry

I didn't know that. Maybe it's worth the OP checking with the state-specific tenants association to find out what their rights are.

The last rental we had, the landlord put the house up for auction 6 months after we moved in. I don't think he did it greedily or unkindly, I think he just changed his mind about what he wanted to do with his family home following the death of his wife. In the event, he gave us the option to move out if we wanted to - which we did.

Beoz

Sounds like unforeseen circumstances. Fair enough. My old landlord was a sneeky rat. Long story but he knew what he was doing. I took great pleasure in watching him get $100,000 less than he thought at the auction.

paulry

Were you present at the auction?

spouse of scouse

No. If your landlord is selling the house, they are allowed to show prospective buyers around provided they give you notice, even if you don't give your consent .

spouse of scouse

There's your garden variety idiot, and then there are super idiots

lolcat

Cheers for the advice folks, I'll be having a good look through VIC specific stuff and I guess initially starting a bit of a waiting game