Your property is vacant and you search for a new tenant. After multiple viewings and applications you select what you feel is the appropriate tenant for the property.  What do you do next? You make arrangements with the tenant when they can move into the property. Let’s say the property is available on the 1st of the next month which is Monday. The property is vacant and the tenants ask if they can move in on the weekend instead of Monday. Since the property is vacant you agree to meet the new tenants on the Thursday evening before the weekend to sign the lease and give them the keys, as this is when both of you are available. The tenants move in on Saturday on the weekend. 

The question is when did your new tenancy start? Does it start on the 1st of the month which is the date on the tenancy agreement? Or Saturday the day they moved in?

Both those answers are wrong. The tenancy would begin on Thursday, the day you signed the lease with the tenant.  Section 16 of the Residential Tenancy Act states “The rights and obligations of a landlord and tenant under a tenancy agreement take effect from the date the tenancy agreement is entered into, whether or not the tenant ever occupies the rental unit.”

What this means is at the time the lease is signed the tenancy begins, even if tenants fail to occupy the unit. In this scenario if the lease was signed on the Thursday and the tenants did not move in they have engaged the tenancy and have the same rights as a tenant, and you as the landlord have the responsibility as the landlord. How can this affect you as a Landlord?. It is important you ensure your home insurance is active for the Thursday when the lease is signed. This also means the tenant has all the rights of a tenant starting on Thursday. This is a short time frame though I have seen other times when it has been a longer time frame and or when the unit is still occupied by the previous tenant. If a new lease is signed while the previous tenant is still in the unit, you are making assumptions that a tenant will be leaving the property as agreed upon. This could create a situation where two parties are claiming tenants rights to the same property.

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Cartref Properties specialises in managing rental units located within Strata Corporations.

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