I Need to Break My Lease Early: What Will It Actually Cost Me? (Every State)

The job offer is in Brisbane and the lease runs to next March. The agent’s email says you’ll owe “rent until a new tenant is found, plus a re-letting fee equal to two weeks’ rent, plus advertising, plus the break fee in clause 41”. You add it up and it looks like four months’ rent. It isn’t.

Each state now regulates what a departing tenant can be charged, and several cap it hard. Agents’ letters routinely claim more than the law allows. The notice you send, and what it says about the landlord’s duty to re-let, is what keeps the bill at the legal minimum.

Your rights

A fixed-term agreement is a contract, and ending it early is a breach, but the landlord’s remedy is limited to their actual, reasonable loss or to the statutory fee, whichever your state prescribes. In every state the landlord must mitigate: advertise promptly, at a reasonable rent, and accept suitable applicants. Rent you owe stops the day a new tenant starts paying. You cannot be charged for the landlord’s time, “penalty” amounts beyond the Act, or advertising that wasn’t reasonably incurred. And where a fixed-fee regime applies, that fee is all you pay: no rent after you leave, no advertising, no re-letting fee. Certain situations (family violence, uninhabitable premises, a serious landlord breach, in some states hardship or moving to aged care) allow you to leave with no break cost at all.

By state

• New South Wales. Residential Tenancies Act 2010, s 107. For fixed terms of three years or less signed on or after 23 March 2020, a mandatory break fee: 4 weeks’ rent if less than 25% of the term has passed, 3 weeks (25–50%), 2 weeks (50–75%), 1 week (75% or more). Nothing else. Give 14 days’ notice; disputes to NCAT.
• Victoria. Residential Tenancies Act 1997. No fixed fee: you owe rent until re-let or the term ends (whichever is first), plus reasonable advertising and a re-letting fee proportionate to the unexpired term (s 211A). Severe hardship: apply to VCAT under ss 91U–91V to reduce the term.
• Queensland. RTRA Act 2008. Serve Form 13 Notice of Intention to Leave. For agreements started or renewed from 30 September 2024, re-letting costs are capped: 4 weeks’ rent (under 25% of the term passed), 3 weeks (25–50%), 2 weeks (50–75%), 1 week (75% or more), and never more than the landlord’s actual cost. Hardship: QCAT.
• Western Australia. Residential Tenancies Act 1987. Give written notice (Form 22 can be used). You owe rent until re-let or the term ends, plus reasonable advertising and re-letting costs; the lessor must mitigate. Hardship: Magistrates Court.
• South Australia. Residential Tenancies Act 1995, s 75A. Rent liability is capped: one month’s rent if under 24 months remain, otherwise one month per remaining 12-month period, to a maximum of six months; plus reasonable re-letting costs. Landlord must mitigate. Hardship: SACAT.
• Tasmania. Residential Tenancy Act 1997, s 17. Break-lease fees are prohibited; you owe rent until re-let or the term ends, and the owner must take reasonable steps to re-let. Disputes: Magistrates Court; some matters via the Residential Tenancy Commissioner.
• Australian Capital Territory. Residential Tenancies Act 1997. Every fixed-term agreement made from 10 December 2024 must include a break-fee clause (older leases have it only if it was included). Where the clause applies: 6 weeks’ rent if less than half the term has passed, 4 weeks otherwise, and nothing more. Without the clause, actual loss with a duty to mitigate. Hardship: ACAT.
• Northern Territory. Residential Tenancies Act 1999. For agreements entered into on or after 2 January 2024, total compensation is capped at 28 days’ rent if less than half the term has passed, 14 days if more, covering lost rent and advertising combined. Disputes: NTCAT.

The Claim Done document asks your state first and drafts your notice to that state’s fee, cap and mitigation rules.

What to do right now

1. Find your lease start and end dates and today’s date. Work out what percentage of the term has passed. In the tiered states that single number sets your fee.
2. Read the lease’s break clause. In New South Wales and Queensland the statute overrides it. In the Australian Capital Territory it applies if the clause is there, and every fixed-term agreement made from 10 December 2024 must include it. Elsewhere, any “fee” beyond actual loss is unenforceable.
3. Give written notice with a firm vacate date. State the section, state what you accept you owe (and only that), and require the landlord to begin re-letting immediately and to tell you the advertising date and asking rent.
4. Help the re-let. Offer access for inspections, keep the place presentable, and consider proposing a replacement tenant. Every day earlier it re-lets is a day’s rent you don’t owe (where rent-to-relet applies).
5. Get the final figure in writing and check it against the Act. Disputes about the bond deduction go to your tribunal, and tribunals reduce over-claims routinely.

The four charges you can push back on

Rent after re-letting: never payable. “Re-letting fee” in a fixed-fee state: not payable in New South Wales or under the Queensland cap. Advertising at premium rates: only reasonable cost, and only where the state allows it at all. Rent at a higher asking price: if the landlord advertises above your rent and it sits empty, that’s a failure to mitigate and the lost weeks are on them. Put these points in your notice and the “four months” quickly becomes a few weeks.

Who to complain to

NCAT, VCAT, QCAT, the Western Australia and Tasmanian Magistrates Courts, SACAT, ACAT or NTCAT for any dispute about the amount or the bond. Your state’s Fair Trading or Consumer Affairs body if an agent demands charges the Act doesn’t permit. Free tenants’ advice services in every state will check the agent’s figure against the statute.

Leave on the right terms — $49

Claim Done drafts a Break Lease Notice for your state that gives valid notice of your vacate date, states exactly what you’re liable for under the Act (and what you’re not), puts the landlord on notice of their duty to re-let, and sets up the bond refund.

Draft My Break Lease Notice — $49 →

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