Tenancy Legislation – Can I Move Back into My Investment Property?

Investment property tenancy legal documentation

How does a landlord end a tenancy now that the “90-day no reason end of tenancy option” has been removed?

Some of the new Tenancy Legislation changes that came into effect in February 2021 involve new requirements for tenancy notice periods.

Before the legislation changed, tenants needed to give 21 days’ notice to end a periodic tenancy for no reason. And landlords could issue a 90-day notice to end a periodic tenancy without giving a specific reason. Therefore, under the new tenancy legislation, both tenant and landlord need to do things slightly differently.

Tenants now need to give an extra week’s notice. Increasing to 28 days’ notice. It appears to be harder for a landlord to end a tenancy. We did some digging, though, and found out that most landlords aren’t affected by changes in notice periods within the legislation.

We surveyed some of our landlords past and present. And found that there are two main reasons why our landlords usually need to end a tenancy:

  1. The landlord wants to move into their property
  2. The landlord wants to sell the property

According to the new tenancy legislation of February 2021, both of these are still valid reasons to issue a 90-day notice to end a tenancy.

What does this mean for landlords?

If you are a landlord, you can still end a tenancy if you plan to move into the property or if you are going to sell the property. You need to provide 63 days’ notice if you (or a member of your family) plan on living in the property. 90 days’ notice if you are going to sell the property. The ability to end a tenancy for either of these reasons still applies.

However, there are other reasons you can end a tenancy. Including converting the property into commercial premises, carrying out extensive renovations, and planning to demolish the property.

Tenants need to be aware that a landlord can still end a tenancy for these reasons.

What does this mean for tenants?

Regarding notice periods, there isn’t much difference for tenants, in our opinion. For instance, a landlord could previously end a periodic tenancy if they wanted to sell or move in, and they can still do so.

The misconception is that it is now harder to remove anti-social tenants. However, removing anti-social tenants is not a common issue that we face. Not a single one of our landlords has in the past issued a 90-day no-cause notice for anti-social behaviour.

Why are anti-social tenants not a common concern for us?

There are a few things we do at Copo to help prevent the problem of anti-social tenants.

  • We work hard to help our landlords ensure their investment properties are clean, warm, dry, well-maintained properties in desirable areas where great tenants want to live.
  • Our team put a lot of time and effort into finding good tenants for our landlords. Our screening and interviewing process helps to ensure that you’re getting upstanding tenants who will look after your property.
  • At Copo, we communicate regularly with our landlords and tenants to ensure that any queries are addressed before they become bigger issues of concern.

The Tenancy Services website is an excellent source of information. You can find a lot of helpful information there. With that said, if you would like some personalised information specific to your property, its location, the type of tenant who wants to live there and the type of amenities and features they will pay more for, get in touch with us at Copo, and we would be delighted to chat!