How will your tenancy end?

There are over two-dozen ways your legal interest in property - aka your tenancy - could end if you're renting in New South Wales; even more if you're in social housing.

In most cases, your tenancy doesn't end without you relinquishing the property to the landlord. In all cases, a trigger of some kind is required. A tenancy doesn't end simply because the fixed-term period concludes - after the fixed period your tenancy continues as a "periodic agreement" under the same conditions as before.

Some triggers for termination are less common than others. For instance, your tenancy might end if your landlord's interests become vested in you - perhaps if you were to marry, or form some other legal union under which all your property interests merge. Or it might end if a person with superior title, such as a mortgagee, becomes entitled to exclusive possession of your home. Similarly, your tenancy might end if a person succeeding title, such as the beneficiary of a reversion of your landlord's property rights, becomes entitled to the property at the exclusion of others.

Your interest in a tenancy ends if a final apprehended violence order that excludes you from the premises is ordered against you.

Your tenancy could end if you die.

Your tenancy could end if your home becomes unlivable through no fault of your own or the landlord's - for example a severe storm taking out part of the property.

Your tenancy could end by returning the property to the landlord by prior agreement. For that matter, it could end by returning the property to the landlord without prior agreement - although that method will generally always cost you something.

You could end your interest in a co-tenancy by giving notice and moving out. You could end your co-tenant's interest by taking them to the Tribunal and getting an order, in exceptional cases.

You could trigger the end of your tenancy by obtaining a Tribunal order for termination on hardship grounds. Your landlord could do the same.

You could end your tenancy because the landlord isn't keeping their part of the bargain. If you're not meeting your own obligations, your landlord could do the same.

Your landlord could apply to the Tribunal to end your tenancy if you've been using the place for an illegal purpose. They could also do that if you've threatened, abused, intimidated or harassed them, or if you've caused serious damage to the place or injury to them or a neighbour. They'd have to prove it, though...

You could end your tenancy if the landlord decides to sell. Your landlord could end your tenancy if they do sell, and the buyer wants to move in - but only if you're in a periodic tenancy.

You could end your tenancy if you need to move into an aged-care facility, or are offered a place with a social housing landlord.

If you're a social housing tenant, your tenancy could end if you become ineligible for social housing, or if your landlord wants to move you to another place and you decline. Strict procedures are to be followed in either of these scenarios.

You could end your tenancy because the rent is increased, if you're in a fixed-term agreement of two years or more (but hardly anybody is...)

You could end your tenancy without a reason, at the end of a fixed term or during a periodic agreement. Your landlord could do the same.

But there is always a reason to end a tenancy.

As a tenant, being able to end a tenancy "without a reason" is appropriate, as it allows you the basic freedom to relocate as your housing needs change. In general, there is no reason to justify those needs to your landlord, or explain to them how your circumstances have changed such that you now wish to move house. Your landlord should have no concern beyond knowing when the property will become available to them again, so that the comparatively simple process of finding a new tenant can be commenced.

On the other hand, landlords being able to end tenancies "without a reason" is bad public policy. It undermines tenants' abilities to establish their homes with any certainty. As we see it, landlords tend to use the "no reason" option in one of three circumstances: where they have a good reason that the law does not accommodate, where they have a good reason but would rather not be put to the trouble of proving it, or where they have a questionable reason that they'd rather not go into.

A fairer renting law would give landlords a couple of additional reasonable grounds, and remove their ability to end tenancies without a good reason. With this in mind the Tenants' Union of NSW, along with more than 40 allies and supporters, are calling on the Government to Make Renting Fair. Visit rentingfair.org.au to find out more.