We owned our home and became renters again - we didn't find it too bad except that we got dogs while we were in our house and found a bit of difficulty finding a place that would let us keep two dogs. In the end we found somewhere. We were prepared for what it meant to rent again so it didn't bother us.

There should be a rental authority in South Australia (sorry not sure what they are called) that will have all the the legal info you require about renting - how much bond you will need to pay, notice before moving out, conditions of your lease and so on.

Most places have to give you 60 days notice if they are asking you to move out and you are not on a fixed term agreement (6 months or 12 months usually). If you are on a periodic agreement, you can be asked to leave at any time provided they give you 60 days notice (you only have to give them 3 weeks). On a fixed term agreement they cannot really ask you to leave without breaking the lease and there are things that they must do if they are breaking the lease. In turn, you cannot break the lease without having to do certain things (like pay for readvertising of the property, paying rent till new tenants move in etc) either. At the end of a fixed term agreement, both parties only need to give 2 weeks notice if they intend to vacate the property . . . unless no lease is signed and no notice is given, then it becomes periodical.

One thing about renting that I have struggled with is that some real estate agents like to do their 3 monthly inspections every 3 months. There are limitations on how often the lesser can enter the property, but they can send you a letter with 7 days notice that they will enter the property to inspect it and they can do this every 3 months, if they want to do it that often. The real estate agent keeps a copy of the keys so if you are not home, they are allowed to let themselves in. Drives me nuts ... last year they did an inspection on my DD's first birthday. It was not so fun.

Anyway, I suggest that you find the rental authority in your state (I assumed SA because your location said Adelaide) and read the literature they have online. This will help you decide if renting out your house is something that you want to do as well because the same laws will govern you as the landlords.

Hope that helps