NSW Wanting to sublease 3rd room in house

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Robert Green

Member
8 February 2020
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Hi there,

A friend and I have recently rented a 3 bedroom place and are looking for a 3rd person to move in.

We applied for the place and as it's a 3 bedroom place we assumed 3 people would be okay, we got accepted and transferred the deposit (2 weeks rent) and bond (4 weeks rent) before we were able to come in and read/sign the tenancy agreement.

Upon reading the tenancy agreement I read that the maximum occupants for this agreement was 2 adults and 0 children and reading the rules for subleasing, this is a valid reason for the landlord to reject a 3rd tenant (the additional occupant must not exceed the maximum number on the tenancy agreement).

The rent for this place is quite high and we weren't expecting to split it 2 ways the whole year, however we weren't aware of this contact until after we had already paid the deposit/bond.

Is this sort of thing common for share houses? I would expect the maximum number of occupants to be at least equal to the number of bedrooms of the place.

What's the best course of action here?

Also what would be the impact if were to rent out the 3rd room regardless?

Thanks in advance.

R.