Leaving a sharehouse early: what it costs, and why giving your housemates notice is not enough

There are two versions of leaving early, and people routinely think they are doing the first when they are doing the second.

The first is leaving a room: you find someone to take your place, you hand over your keys, everyone is happy. The second is being released from a legal agreement. Only the second one ends your liability, and it does not happen automatically when the first one does.

First: are you actually on the lease?

Everything below depends on this, and it is worth being certain rather than assuming.

You are a co-tenant — your name is on the agreement

You are jointly and severally liable. In plain terms: you are responsible for all the rent, not your share of it. If the household stops paying after you leave, the landlord can pursue you for the whole amount, and the fact that you moved out and someone else moved into your room changes nothing on paper.

Moving out does not remove you. What removes you is a change to the agreement — a transfer or variation that the landlord agrees to and that names the incoming person. Until that document exists, you are still a tenant who happens to live somewhere else.

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in sharehousing, and it is almost always discovered months later.

You are a sub-tenant — your agreement is with the head-tenant

Your landlord is the head-tenant, and your notice goes to them, not to the owner. Your obligations run to the end of your agreement, on its own terms.

You are a boarder or lodger

You are outside the residential tenancies legislation in most states, which cuts both ways: fewer protections, but also usually no fixed term and no break fee. Whatever you agreed is what applies. Get it in writing before you need it.

What it costs to break a fixed term

Two different systems exist in Australia, and which one you are in changes the arithmetic completely.

A set fee (NSW)

New South Wales removes the guesswork for most agreements. For a fixed-term agreement of three years or less, the mandatory break fee is a fixed proportion of rent, scaled to how far through the term you are:

How much of the term has passed	Break fee
Less than 25%	4 weeks’ rent
25% to less than 50%	3 weeks’ rent
50% to less than 75%	2 weeks’ rent
75% or more	1 week’s rent

The practical consequence: if you are close to a threshold, the timing of your notice is worth real money. Leaving at 74% of a twelve-month lease costs twice what leaving at 76% does.

Agreements longer than three years use a different, optional clause — commonly 6 weeks’ rent in the first half of the term and 4 weeks in the second — unless the agreement names another amount.

Actual costs (Victoria and most other states)

Elsewhere the answer is not a table but a calculation. You are generally liable for rent until the property is re-let or the fixed term ends, whichever comes first, plus reasonable reletting costs — advertising and a letting fee.

Two things make this less frightening than it sounds:

• The landlord has a duty to mitigate: they must genuinely try to re-let, at a reasonable rent, rather than leave the place empty and bill you for it. If the property sat vacant because nobody advertised it, that is not your cost.
• Costs are usually apportioned to the remaining term. A letting fee for a new twelve-month lease is not entirely yours because you left two months early.

When you may owe nothing

Every state has grounds for ending a tenancy early without a break fee. The details differ, but the categories are broadly similar: family violence, the landlord's serious breach, the property becoming unfit to live in, hardship, or moving into aged care or social housing. If any of these apply to you, do not assume the standard fee — check, because the difference is weeks of rent.

What to do, in order

1. Read the agreement and find the fixed-term end date and any break-fee clause. Work out what percentage of the term has passed.
2. Give notice in writing, to the right person — the landlord or agent if you are a tenant, the head-tenant if you are a sub-tenant. A message in the group chat is not notice.
3. If you are a co-tenant, ask for a transfer, in writing, naming your replacement. Do not rely on "they said it was fine". You want the varied agreement or the landlord's written consent, and you want a copy.
4. Sort the bond separately. Your share does not come back automatically when you leave — the bond stays lodged until the whole tenancy ends. Either the incoming person pays you directly, or you lodge a bond variation with the state authority. Agree which, in writing, before you hand over the keys.
5. Do a condition report anyway. Photograph your room and the common areas on your last day. When the bond is finally claimed, possibly a year after you left, those photos are the only version of events you control.

The one-line version

Filling your room is a favour to your housemates. Getting your name off the agreement is the thing that protects you, and only the landlord can do it.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page was read off the official source below on 16 August 2026. Tenancy rules change — sometimes more than once a year — so if money is about to change hands, spend two minutes confirming against the original.

• NSW Fair Trading — Breaking a fixed-term residential tenancy early
• Consumer Affairs Victoria — Leaving a rental property early
• Residential Tenancies Authority (QLD) — Ending a tenancy
• Tenants’ Union of NSW — Share housing

This is general information to help you ask better questions, not legal advice. If something has already gone wrong, your state tenancy authority and your local tenants advice service will both help you for free.