End of Lease Help
Hi good people of reddit,
Got a bit of a messy end of lease situation in Canberra and would appreciate some advice.
We’re on a periodic lease and gave notice to vacate on 12 April. In the ACT you only have to give 3 weeks notice for a periodic lease, so that part is all fine.
The REA came back and said final inspection and key handover would be on 4 May.
Problem is we’re actually moving out on 28 April and heading overseas on the 4th. We asked to bring everything forward to the 28th so we could be there in case they wanted anything touched up, as agents can be pretty picky. He said that was fine but never locked in a time.
Since then, nothing.
Land line is disconnected, emails are not getting replies, and all the staff have resigned.
So now I’m stuck with:
No confirmed inspection time
No clear way to return keys
No contact from the agent at all
From what I understand thanks to ChatGPT, once we vacate, return the keys, lodge the bond claim, the 14 day period starts for them to dispute.
Plan at the moment is:
Clean and vacate on the 28th
Take detailed photos and videos of everything
Return keys somehow
Lodge bond claim straight away
Got a few issues here. From my understanding, as long as I get the keys to them or send them to a PO Box, I can kick off the bond claim from there. Is that correct?
Further to that, it looks like the agency does not even have an office anymore, so I have no idea where I am meant to drop the keys.
Also, would it be crossing a line to contact the landlord directly just to sort out key return, or is that reasonable given the situation? Plus recommend some better agents lol
Just trying to avoid any issues, especially after a bad experience with a previous rental. Would love not have a hassle while we’re away 🙂
Cheers🙂