Diplomatic / posting clause in residential tenancy agreement

p1 said :

I thought that one of the standard legitimate reasons for a landlord to break a tennancy agreement was for the owner to resume living in the property?

Not quite.

Leases are typically fixed term, and after that term ends then they go periodic (IE month-to-month.) If the lease is periodic then “family moving in” allows the landlord to give 4 weeks notice instead of 8. However, if the lease is still in it’s fixed term then it’s ~6 months notice required regardless.

I’m a little confused as to how the “Diplomatic Clause” works (as apparently it does) because the standard tenancy agreement says it’s rules (like the ones I just mentioned) are unable to be voided even if a tenant signs something saying otherwise.

I’m with Tetranitrate. If the agent wants to add the clause, tell them to subtract money from the weekly amount.

If the clauses “are never enacted” then why are they putting them in in the first place? The landlord won’t want to negotiate the notice period, but perhaps you can negotiate to get your last month’s rent free if the clause is enacted?

Is the 3 year lease your choice, or all that’s being offered? Like Queen_Of_The_Bun suggests, in this market a 3 year lease is probably not in your interest as rents could drop a lot over the next couple of years.

I thought that one of the standard legitimate reasons for a landlord to break a tennancy agreement was for the owner to resume living in the property?

Any idea where they are posted? You might want to be more cautious if it’s a turbulent part of the world, but if it’s a first world western country, the only real reason they’d be sent home is a change of govt/political reason, or they did something terrible.

We got a two year lease on our place, it might be unusual, but we absolutely hated moving, had been in our previous place 7 years, and didn’t want to feel like we were moving into a place the owner might boot us out of and move back into a year later. Luckily even though rents went down, we got ourselves a pretty competitive price at the beginning so we’re still on par a year later.

Wilco said :

Apsara said :

Wilco – most postings are fixed term, hence needing this clause because just in case things happen – like the govt changes their mind, some people are sent home in disgrace or people die etc. The ‘fixed term posting’ is just a guide, it’s not about deceptive conduct.

Aspara

With respect, that’s not what I said. If a lessor knows their fixed term posting expires during a fixed term lease, insists on a posting clause, does not disclose the known return date to the tenant at the time the lease is signed, returns during the currency of the fixed term lease and attempts to exercise the posting clause, then that’s arguably misleading and deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law. Applies to the agent as well if the agent knew what was going on at the time the lease was signed and was silent on the matter.

Most postings are 3 years. It unlikely, but not impossible, that the OP is negotiating a 3 year lease agreement.

Apsara said :

Wilco – most postings are fixed term, hence needing this clause because just in case things happen – like the govt changes their mind, some people are sent home in disgrace or people die etc. The ‘fixed term posting’ is just a guide, it’s not about deceptive conduct.

Aspara

With respect, that’s not what I said. If a lessor knows their fixed term posting expires during a fixed term lease, insists on a posting clause, does not disclose the known return date to the tenant at the time the lease is signed, returns during the currency of the fixed term lease and attempts to exercise the posting clause, then that’s arguably misleading and deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law. Applies to the agent as well if the agent knew what was going on at the time the lease was signed and was silent on the matter.

People use these sorts of clauses to evict tenants on a whim all the time.

Rental properties are starting to pile up, and vacancy rates are high. Dig in your heels. If they decide to come home early, they can rent something while they perform under the contract they are signing with you instead of inconveniencing you.

We will be putting the same clause in our rental contract. Sometimes postings change, or it becomes unsafe to stay there. So it could be enforced (it was with a friend of mine). But you will find in most leases you can be asked to move if the landlord wants to move back in.

A three-year tenancy agreement is pretty unusual and probably not in the best interests of either the landlord or the tenant.

Lobbing it at the OP at the last minute AFTER they’d negotiated the rental amount is a pretty dirty move, it should have been on the table from the beginning so that the OP could take that into account when considering what the house is ‘worth’ to them.

Given that it’s a basically a renters market now, I really can’t see why anyone would stand for it, there are plenty of decent, reasonably priced houses to rent out there and most of them won’t have a clause like that attached.
The OP should at least look at renegotiating the price given the out-of-the-blue addition of this clause.