Lease obligations
Question from Troy updated on 14th May 2018:
My partner has a lease agreement on the property she is renting. The real estate company has changed a number of times over the past six months and she has only ever signed an agreement with the original company. She wants to break the lease now so does the new company hold any legal stance over her breaking the lease as they have not made her sign a new contract?
Our expert Bernard Parker responded:
The owner of a property may have a property manager act as his/her agent. If the owner changes the agent the tenancy does not end. In the same way as the agent is required to observe the conditions of the existing tenancy agreement, so is the tenant. In short, if your partner has not signed a new tenancy agreement the old one continues. The new property manager, representing the owner, has the authority to enforce that agreement.
Bernard is principal of Quinovic – Kapiti-Mana. Quinovic's outstanding people and systems provide the most professional, effective and reliable residential property management service in the NZ market for over 30 years.Search the Ask an Expert archive
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