Next in our series on landlord frequently asked questions is what happens when you decide to list your property for sale?

There are a number of factors that can make a difference when you want to list your investment property for sale and you will need to know exactly what the circumstances are, so that you can get things listed in the correct way.

Firstly, you will need to know if your tenants are on a fixed term lease or on a continuance lease.

If they are on a fixed term lease, you will need to speak with your solicitor or conveyancer when you arrange them to draw up your contract for sale and ensure that the contract is noted as being subject to existing tenancies.  This means that the tenant is not able to be asked to vacate the property prior to the end of their lease period.  The new purchaser of the property cannot have vacant possession of the premises until the lease has expired.

If your tenants are on a continuance lease, then the sales contract does not need to be noted and you can give 30 days notice requesting vacant possession of the property to the tenant when the contracts have exchanged (prior to settlement).

In all cases, prior to listing the property to the market for sale, the tenants must be given 14 days notice of your intention to sell the premises.  It does not matter what type of lease the tenant is on, they need to be given the correct notice.  Once this notice has been given to the tenant, unless you had written in their lease that you were intending to sell, the tenant is able to give 14 days notice to vacate the premises, whether they are on a fixed term agreement or not.

When a rented property is up for sale, the law requires a tenant to be given 48hrs notice when a purchaser is asking  to be shown the property.  This can make things a little more difficult for our sales department, as we cannot just show a property when someone enquires, but we have some great processes around how we deal with this situation and I would say that the majority of our tenants are fantastic during a sale process.

If you are having difficulty with getting access to the property during a sales campaign, or perhaps there are other issues, there are plenty of things that you can try to smooth things over and give your tenant some certainty.  If you wanted to chat about this further, please make sure that you call me at the office so we can discuss some strategies and things that have worked for some of our landlords in the past.

There is a lot to consider when you are thinking about selling and I would recommend that you have a discussion with both your sales agent and your property manager prior to making the decision to put your property on the market for sale.