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Imagine moving into a rental property that you really like, but then you get a job offer in another country. Would you expect to pay a fee if you needed to break your lease and move out early, or if you knew rental properties were in high demand in your area, would you expect to move out without paying a dime?

In this story, one couple was in this situation, and they did not want to pay a fee to break their lease. Technically, they were supposed to, but they didn’t think it was fair and decided to fight it.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

Go to the tenancy tribunal? If you say so …

New Zealand has some particularly predatory property managers.

Their prey is university students and young families who live in our bigger cities.

There are stories in our news quite frequently about how poorly they treat tenants.

This sounds awful.

I spent my 20s living in rental properties in Wellington. Most of the houses I lived in were super damp, mold ridden heaps.

They were also super expensive (they are even worse now).

Fortunately, New Zealand has a fantastic tenancy tribunal who are sick of property managers preying on young people who do not have a lot of money.

This sounds wonderful!

When I was about 28, my (now) wife and I found a beautiful house in a suburb called Berhampore. Close to the city, quiet area, near a bus stop, plenty of space including a pretty garden in the back and, most importantly, not expensive.

A perfect house.

Just before we moved in I took about 200 photos of the house. I’d become very weary of how easily property managers could rake a tenant over the coals for damage, garbage etc the previous tenant left behind.

Everything seemed great.

We spent a year and a half living there without incident.

We had to report to the property manager that trash had been left under the house by the previous, and they dealt with it well.

When we needed to install high-speed broadband they were easy to deal with and everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

About 4 months prior to the end of our lease, I was offered a brewing job in the United States. I informed our property manager that we would need to break our lease earlier than expected to which she replied, “no problem, let’s arrange a time to meet”.

OP did some research before the meeting.

Prior to meeting with her I researched her company’s policy on moving out of rental properties prior to the agreed date.

The company policy was that if a tenant broke the agreement early then the tenant would have to pay $750 to the property manager. This was supposedly to cover the listing fee.

I should mention at this point that listing properties in Wellington was not challenging, nor expensive. Most properties were filled within a week. Some property managers were even expecting people to show up with cash to cover Bond plus first month’s rent when they were having viewings of the property.

There was no way that $750 was going towards just the listing fee.

OP tried to offer a lower fee.

When I went into our meeting, I told her that we were willing to ensure the property was cleaner than when we arrived, and also we were willing to offer an extra $200 for moving out prior to the lease ending.

At that point she showed me the company policy which stated leaving prior to the end of the agreed lease date would mean a $750 fee for us as the tenants.

I acted flabbergasted, as one would, to hear of this shocking news.

At this point our property manager explained to me that the tenants before my wife and I were in a similar situation and had left prior to the agreed date.

Nobody was willing to back down.

I explained to her that this was extortion and I thought it was incredibly unfair. I repeated to her that we had offered her $200 to help with relisting the property and that we were willing to list it ourselves. I also said to her that it was ridiculous to think that it would cost more than $100 to list and fill that property.

She explained to me “that is what the tenants before you did (paid the $750) and that’s just what everyone does.”

To which I replied “just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean it’s right.”

We argued some more and left it unresolved.

He took her advice.

On my way out of her office she said, “if this is still an issue, you should get in touch with the tenancy tribunal”.

With the rage of a thousand suns, and the ability to bottle emotions like a true Catholic, I managed to respond, “I’ll do that”.

As soon as I got home, I went on to the tenancy tribunal website and filed a complaint against the company she represented.

That worked out well!

Within a day, the tribunal had agreed to help me and contacted the property manager.

In turn, she emailed me begging for mercy. “If you agree to drop the complaint, we won’t charge you anything. The owner is very disappointed, but if you leave the house in a good state there will be no more issues”.

We’re not absolute trash, so of course we cleaned the place thoroughly. We moved out without paying them a dime.

But the real reward came when I saw her in the city and greeted her with a big smile and wave. I didn’t think I had the power of invisibility but she didn’t seem to see me at all.

She probably wasn’t expecting him to fight the fee. Most people wouldn’t. It’s really cool that it worked out in his favor, and she even gave him the ammunition he needed without really meaning to do it!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person is surprised the fee was only $750.

Another person shares a part they found funny.

Someone from Australia weighs in.

But this person seems to feel bad for the property manager.

Honestly, $750 doesn’t seem like all that much for breaking the lease early. I probably wouldn’t have fought it and just paid the fee. I’m sure that’s what most people would do.

If the tribunal thought the fee was too high though, maybe it was. The property manager clearly didn’t forgive him for what he did though. And it sounds like it was a great place to live while they were there.

Some fees are worth fighting.