Tenant Wants to Break the Lease? What a Landlord Can (and Can’t) Charge, State by State

The message usually arrives on a weeknight. “Hi, sorry to do this, but we need to move out at the end of the month.” A job in another city, a break-up, a baby on the way, a rent they can no longer manage. And now you’re a self-managing landlord with a fixed-term lease that still has seven months on it and no idea what happens next.

Our senior agent Chenelle hears the same worry first, every time: “They’re worried about money, specifically being left covering rent on an empty property with no idea how long that could drag on. I walk them through the break-lease costs and reletting process straight away so they know it’s not open-ended.”

So that’s what this article does. A tenant breaking a lease early is a normal, rules-bound event with a number attached, and in most states that number is capped. Below is what you can charge in each state and territory, what you have to do to keep your claim intact, and how the money actually changes hands. It’s a process. You can run it.

Can a tenant break a fixed-term lease?

Yes. A fixed term isn’t a padlock. A tenant can leave before the end date; the question is only what they owe when they do, and that depends on why they’re leaving.

There are two very different situations, and telling them apart is your first job.

Breaking the lease. The tenant is leaving for their own reasons (work, relationship, finances, a house they’ve bought). They’re responsible for some of your losses, calculated the way your state sets out below.

Ending the lease without penalty. Every state gives tenants a short list of situations where they can walk away from a fixed term owing nothing beyond rent to the day they hand back the keys. A landlord who tries to charge a break fee in one of these gets nowhere at the tribunal, and it’s not a good look. The list varies by state, but these come up everywhere or nearly everywhere:

The tenant, or their child, is experiencing domestic or family violence (no break costs in any jurisdiction; the notice and evidence rules vary, and Victoria routes it through VCAT).
You’ve breached the agreement (for example, not doing repairs within the required time) and they’ve served the proper notice.
A tribunal has ended the tenancy on hardship grounds.
The tenant is moving into social housing or aged care (NSW and the ACT allow both, with notice and evidence; Victoria allows social housing and moves for special or personal care; the NT allows public housing only, and only if the tenant told you they’d applied before signing).
You’ve put the property up for sale during the fixed term without telling them before they signed that you intended to (NSW, VIC, QLD and the ACT all have versions of this rule; Queensland’s applies if the property is advertised in the first two months of the agreement. Our guide to selling a rental property with tenants covers it).
In NSW, you’ve given them a termination notice yourself and they leave early on an “early exit notice”; in the ACT, a posting clause in the agreement (for agreements from 12 October 2025, no compensation at all).

If the tenant’s reason is on your state’s list, the rest of this article doesn’t apply. Check the list on your state authority’s page (linked in the table below) before you mention money.

What can you charge when a tenant breaks the lease? Rules by state

This is where the rules have moved a lot in the last few years, and where most of what’s online is out of date. Queensland switched to a capped formula for agreements signed from 30 September 2024. The Northern Territory capped compensation for agreements from 2 January 2024. NSW has had a mandatory formula since March 2020. Victoria doesn’t allow a penalty at all, only your actual costs.

State / territory	What the tenant owes for breaking a fixed term	Must you try to relet?	Where disputes go
NSW	Agreements signed on or after 23 March 2020 with a term of 3 years or less: a mandatory break fee of 4 weeks’ rent if less than 25% of the term has passed, 3 weeks (25% to under 50%), 2 weeks (50% to under 75%), or 1 week (75% or more). That’s the whole claim (section 107 of the Act). Older agreements: a 6-week / 4-week optional break-fee clause if it wasn’t deleted; otherwise, and for terms over 3 years, negotiated compensation for lost rent, advertising and any letting fee, or an NCAT order.	For the mandatory fee, the Act’s mitigation duty doesn’t apply (the fee is fixed either way), but relist anyway. For a compensation claim, you must show NCAT the reasonable steps you took	NCAT
VIC	No penalty. The renter covers your actual costs: rent until the property is re-let, reasonable advertising, and a proportion of a re-letting fee only if an agent charged you one. Agreements over 5 years: VCAT can’t order more than one month’s rent per remaining year, maximum 6 months.	Yes; you must do everything you can to re-let quickly, and the renter owes no rent once someone new is in	VCAT
QLD	Agreements entered into on or after 30 September 2024 (under 3 years): reletting costs capped at the lesser of 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 weeks’ rent (same percentage steps as NSW) or the rent for the days until a new tenant moves in. Nothing else can be added. Older agreements: the “reasonable reletting costs” term in the lease still applies if it complied with the old rule.	Yes, “all reasonable steps” (section 362); QCAT can’t award more than the formula	RTA conciliation, then QCAT
WA	No set fee. Costs you reasonably incur: rent until a replacement tenant moves in or the term ends, whichever is first, plus advertising. Not the final inspection or other normal end-of-tenancy costs, and not losses you could have avoided.	Yes, advertise quickly; Consumer Protection notes that in a tight market you may lose very little	Magistrates Court
SA	Lost rent, advertising and a re-letting fee. SA.GOV.AU caps the “break lease fee” at one month’s rent where under 24 months remain (one month per remaining year above that, up to 6 months), which we read as the lost-rent ceiling. Advertising and the re-letting fee are pro-rated by the SACAT formula to the time left on the term, unless the tenant leaves in the first quarter of the term, in which case the whole cost is claimable. The re-letting fee is based on what an agent charges (up to 2 weeks’ rent plus GST). No claim if you don’t try to re-let promptly.	Yes; the tenant can ask whether you advertised, showed the property and reviewed the rent	SACAT
TAS	Rent until a new lease starts or the term ends, whichever is first, plus any advertising costs charged to you.	Yes: advertise, process applications, don’t unreasonably refuse them. You don’t have to offer the same terms	Residential Tenancy Commissioner (bond); Magistrates Court
ACT	Current standard term 89A (older agreements may say something different, so read yours): a break fee of 6 weeks’ rent if less than half the term has passed, otherwise 4 weeks (terms of 3 years or less), and that fee is the limit of what you can claim. If a new tenant starts inside that 6- or 4-week window, the fee drops by the rent they pay for the rest of it, and only then can you add reasonable advertising and re-letting costs (if the tenant left more than 4 weeks before the end), capped at 1 week’s rent (first half of term) or two-thirds of a week (second half).	Yes, and the standard term says so	ACAT
NT	Agreements entered into on or after 2 January 2024: everything is capped at 28 days’ rent if less than half the term has passed, or 14 days if more than half. That cap covers lost rent and other costs like advertising, and you can only claim actual vacancy days and evidenced costs. Earlier agreements: all losses from the breach.	Yes. And if you keep any of the bond you must apply to NTCAT within 3 months or lose the right to claim	NTCAT

Sources, and the pages to re-read before you quote a figure to your tenant: NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, the Queensland RTA (which has a reletting-costs calculator), Consumer Protection WA, SA.GOV.AU, CBOS Tasmania, the ACT standard tenancy terms and NT Consumer Affairs. These rules change; several of the eight have changed since 2024.

Rent stops when the new tenant starts. In every state, the outgoing tenant’s liability for rent ends the day someone else’s begins. A capped formula (NSW, QLD, ACT, NT) sets the ceiling; it never entitles you to the full amount if you’ve re-let sooner, except in NSW where the mandatory fee is fixed either way.
The formula is a ceiling. Queensland says in terms that special lease clauses can’t contradict the Act, that no additional reletting costs can be requested, and that QCAT can’t order more than the calculation. NSW’s mandatory fee is the whole claim. Trying to add extras on top is the second most common mistake Chenelle sees, and “that gets thrown out fast if it goes to tribunal.”
Arrears, damage and bills are separate. Break costs cover the cost of the tenant leaving early. Unpaid rent up to the day they left, utility bills in their name, and damage beyond fair wear and tear are still claimable in the normal way, through the bond and the usual end-of-tenancy condition report process. Don’t muddle the two claims; itemise them.
Agree, then write it down. In SA and the NT especially, a landlord can agree to waive the break costs, and the tenant is told to get that in writing. If you agree a figure or a waiver, put it in an email the same day.

If you self-manage, the reletting fee probably isn’t yours to claim

Most break-lease guides are written by agents for landlords with agents, so they talk about a “reletting fee” as if it’s automatic. It isn’t. A reletting fee is what a property manager charges the owner to find a new tenant, and the rules that let a landlord pass it on assume it was paid.

Consumer Affairs Victoria says it plainly: renters don’t have to pay “re-letting fees if the property is rented directly with the owner and not through a real estate agent”. South Australia’s formula is written around the agent’s fee (up to two weeks’ rent plus GST); if you didn’t pay one, it’s hard to see what there is to pro-rate. So in those states, a self-managing landlord’s claim is lost rent plus what you actually spent advertising. In NSW, Queensland, the ACT and the NT the statutory cap or formula applies whether or not you use an agent. WA and Tasmania sit in between: rent until re-let plus real, receipted costs.

You can’t invent a fee you never paid, and you don’t have to leave money on the table where the law gives you a set amount.

The day you get the message: five steps

The formula sets the ceiling. How fast the property is back on the market sets what you actually lose. Chenelle again: “Sitting on the empty property is the big one. Every week it’s not relisted is a week the landlord’s actually owed less, because the tenant’s liability is capped at what a reasonable reletting timeframe would look like.”

Reply in writing, the same day. Thank them for the notice, ask for their intended move-out date in writing, and say you’ll come back with the costs once you’ve checked your state’s rules. Don’t quote a number yet.
Check the reason against the no-penalty list. If it’s domestic violence, hardship, social housing, aged care, or something you did (or didn’t do), the break-fee rules don’t apply. Handle it as an ordinary end of tenancy.
Work out the figure from your state’s rule, and send it with the working. “Under the Queensland formula, 41% of the term has expired, so reletting costs are capped at 3 weeks’ rent ($1,800), or less if I find someone sooner.” A tenant who can see the calculation rarely argues with it, and Consumer Protection WA tells landlords to give an approximate breakdown straight away for exactly that reason.
Relist within 48 hours. This is the step that matters. Photos from your last inspection or the entry report, and a fresh ad with inspection times already in it. If you’re self-managing, a private rental listing on realestate.com.au and Domain costs $205 flat, which is also the advertising figure you’ll put in your claim in the states where advertising is claimable. Ask the outgoing tenant, in writing, whether they’ll agree to inspections before they move out. Most will, because every early applicant shortens their bill too. (Showing a property to prospective tenants is its own kind of entry with its own notice, so use the proper notice and hours for your state; the entry rules in our routine inspections guide are a starting point.)
Keep the paper trail. The ad, the date it went live, enquiries, inspections held, applications processed. If it ever goes to a tribunal, you’ll be asked what you did to minimise the loss, and “listed it on the Tuesday, six inspections, new lease signed on the 14th” wins that conversation. If you run the tenancy through rental management software, the lease, the ledger and the condition reports are already in one place; add the ad and the emails to the same folder.

What our team sees
“Had a landlord get notice their tenants were moving out, and they listed straight away on our advice. They didn’t wait. We even got the outgoing tenants’ approval to run an open for inspection a week before they moved out. New tenant was locked in and moved in just 3 days after the old ones vacated. The outgoing tenants were clear on what was expected at exit too, so the property was left clean and tidy, just needed minor touch-ups before handover. End result: the owner was out of pocket for maybe half a week’s rent instead of weeks of vacancy. That’s what acting fast and communicating clearly with the outgoing tenant gets you.”
Chenelle Moothedom, Senior Agent, PropertyNow

Don’t use the gap to renovate and then bill the tenant for the empty weeks; Consumer Protection WA names that as a loss the tenant doesn’t have to pay for, and every other state’s mitigation rule gets you to the same place. And don’t advertise at a rent the market won’t pay and let it sit; South Australia specifically lets the tenant ask whether an over-priced ad delayed the re-let.

A worked example

Say the rent is $600 a week on a 12-month lease, the tenant leaves after four months (about a third of the way through), and you re-let two weeks later, having spent $205 on the ad.

NSW: 25% to under 50% expired, so the mandatory break fee is 3 weeks’ rent: $1,800. Fixed, regardless of the two-week re-let.
QLD (agreement from 30 Sep 2024): the lesser of 3 weeks’ rent ($1,800) or rent until the new tenant moves in (2 weeks, $1,200): $1,200, nothing added.
VIC, self-managed: 2 weeks’ lost rent plus the $205 ad, no reletting fee: about $1,405.
WA and TAS: the same shape as Victoria, about $1,405.
SA, self-managed: 2 weeks’ lost rent (under the one-month cap) plus the ad pro-rated to the 35 weeks left on the term: roughly $1,385.
ACT: break fee of 6 weeks ($3,600), less the new tenant’s rent for the remaining 4 weeks of that window ($2,400), plus the ad (under the 1-week cap): about $1,405.
NT (agreement from 2 Jan 2024): capped at 28 days’ rent ($2,400), but you can only claim actual losses: 2 weeks’ rent plus the ad, about $1,405.

Same tenant, same house, and the answer ranges from $1,200 to $1,800 depending on the postcode. Run your own numbers on your state’s page; Queensland’s RTA has a calculator that does it for you.

How you actually collect it

Chenelle: “Most sort it out directly: an agreed figure covering rent until relet plus the reletting/advertising costs, taken from the bond. Tribunal only really comes into it if the landlord tries to claim more than the legislated cap, or the tenant disputes the amount. It rarely needs to go that far.”

Agree the figure. Once the new tenant’s start date is known, the number is fixed. Send the final calculation with the dates, and ask the tenant to confirm.

Claim it from the bond. In most states the break costs come out of the bond through the normal bond-claim process, alongside any cleaning or damage items, and the tenant agrees or disputes each line. Our bond lodgement guide covers how each state’s bond authority handles a claim. In Victoria, the RTBA only releases the bond when everyone agrees or VCAT orders it, so an agreed figure matters more than usual. In the Northern Territory, withholding any of the security deposit for a lease break requires an NTCAT application within three months of the tenant leaving; miss that and the claim is gone.

Tribunal, if you have to. If the tenant disputes the amount or the bond doesn’t cover it, the state tribunal (or the Magistrates Court in WA and Tasmania) decides. You’ll need the lease, the notice, your calculation, and the evidence that you re-let promptly. Bring all of it. In Queensland the RTA’s free conciliation comes first.

The bond is usually the practical ceiling. If your losses exceed it, you can pursue the difference, but weigh the time against the amount. Often the better use of the same hours is getting the next tenant settled.

Check the lease, then check the state

Your lease may have a break-fee or reletting clause. NSW’s standard agreement carries the mandatory formula, the ACT standard terms include clause 89A, and older Queensland agreements often have a “reasonable reletting costs” term. Read yours before you write to the tenant.

But the state rule wins. Queensland is explicit that a special term can’t contradict the Act; NSW’s mandatory fee applies regardless of what the additional terms say; Victoria bans penalties outright. As Chenelle puts it: “Break-fee and reletting costs aren’t one-size-fits-all. Every state has its own rules on what’s chargeable and how it’s calculated. Landlords should check the state rental board, e.g. the RTA for Queensland, to know what is applicable to charge for in break lease situations.” If your lease is one of the state’s standard forms, it and the law will say the same thing; our guide to residential lease agreements explains why using the proper form for your state saves you exactly this kind of argument.

The bottom line

A tenant breaking a lease is a bounded problem. Check whether their reason puts them on the no-penalty list. If not, work out the figure from your state’s rule (a set number of weeks’ rent in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and the NT; your actual, receipted losses in Victoria, WA, SA and Tasmania), show the tenant the working, and relist the property within a couple of days. Everywhere except NSW’s fixed fee, rent stops the day the new tenant starts, so speed is what shrinks the bill for both of you. Take the agreed amount from the bond, keep everything in writing, and save the tribunal for the rare case where you genuinely disagree.

Handled that way, a lease break usually costs a self-managing landlord a week or two of rent and a few hours of admin. And you’ll have a new tenant, on a fresh term, at today’s rent.

Tenant leaving early? Get the ad up today

Every day the property sits empty is a day you’re owed less. List it yourself on realestate.com.au and Domain for a flat $205, with inspections and applications handled online.

Advertise your rental

Frequently asked questions

Can a tenant break a lease early in Australia?
Yes. A fixed-term tenant can leave before the end date. Unless their reason is one their state allows without penalty (domestic violence, hardship, landlord breach, and a few others), they’re liable for some of the landlord’s costs: a set break fee in NSW, Queensland (for agreements from 30 September 2024), the ACT and the NT (from 2 January 2024), or the landlord’s actual losses in Victoria, WA, SA and Tasmania.

How much can a landlord charge for breaking a lease?
It depends on the state and, in some states, on when the agreement was signed. NSW and Queensland use a 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 weeks’ rent scale based on how much of the term has passed (Queensland caps it at actual lost rent if that’s lower). The ACT standard term is 6 weeks (first half of the term) or 4 weeks, reduced by the new tenant’s rent. The NT caps everything at 28 or 14 days’ rent. Victoria, WA, SA and Tasmania allow only your actual losses: rent until re-let and reasonable advertising, with SA and Victoria adding a pro-rated agent’s re-letting fee where one was paid. The table above has the detail and the source for each.

Does a landlord have to find a new tenant if the tenant breaks the lease?
Yes, everywhere except NSW’s mandatory-fee case, where the fee is fixed and the Act’s mitigation duty doesn’t apply. In every other situation you must take reasonable steps to re-let promptly (advertise, hold inspections, process applications), and you can’t claim losses you could have avoided. Tribunals will ask what you did. Relisting within a day or two is both the rule and the best way to keep your own loss small, and it’s still the sensible move in NSW.

Can I charge a break fee if I don’t use a property manager?
It depends on which kind of charge. Statutory break fees (NSW, Queensland, ACT, NT) apply whether or not there’s an agent. A re-letting fee is different: it’s the agent’s fee for finding a new tenant, and Victoria says outright that a renter doesn’t have to pay one when the property is rented directly with the owner. South Australia’s formula is built on the agent’s fee too. If you self-manage in those states, claim lost rent and your real advertising costs, not a fee you never paid.

Can I take the break fee out of the bond?
Usually, yes, through your state’s normal bond-claim process, with the tenant agreeing or disputing the amount. Two exceptions to know: Victoria’s bond authority only pays out on agreement or a VCAT order, and in the Northern Territory you must apply to NTCAT within three months of the tenant leaving if you withhold any of the deposit for a lease break.

What if the tenant just leaves without telling me?
That’s abandonment, and most states treat it the same way as a lease break for costs, with the same duty on you to re-let promptly. Confirm they’ve actually gone (keys returned, belongings removed), follow your state’s abandonment process before you re-enter or re-let, do the exit condition report, and then calculate the claim from the date they left.

Can a landlord break a lease early?
Only in limited situations: a tenant’s breach, a tribunal order on hardship grounds, or, in some states, specific clauses such as the ACT posting clause. In general, wanting to sell, renovate or move back in are grounds for ending a periodic tenancy with notice, or for not renewing at the end of the fixed term, not for cutting a fixed term short. A landlord and tenant can always agree in writing to end a fixed term early; put the date and “no penalties” in the same email.