I have tenants who I believe are dishonestly claiming financial hardship due to COVID. They have demanded a 50% reduction in rent and as yet have provided no evidence for their claim. I know they have in fact moved out of my property and taken up a second lease for a property in the same suburb and for the same rent. They have not notified us that they have moved out and I assume this is because they don’t want us to know so that they can claim financial hardship rather than being fully responsible for the rent for the remainder of the lease. They only have a few months left on the lease and we had notified them earlier that we were not going to take on another 12 month lease as we were going to move into the property ourselves. They knew that the chances of finding a tenant for the remainder of the lease was unlikely so I think they’ve gone down this path to minimise their losses. Due to financial constraints we probably will advertise for another 12 month lease now. However, with no inspections allowed in Vic at the moment it is unlikely we’ll find new tenants quickly. If Consumer Affairs side with them, if we move forward with a rent reduction, can we include their other landlord as it seems unreasonable that we should bear the full cost? Would taking on another lease be enough evidence that financial hardship does not apply?