waahh they're selling my home!

[shellbell3]

So I've only been in this place 5.5 months before I get a call telling me the owners are selling.
Now I have to deal with keeping the place tidy every weekend for 4 weeks to deal with open for inspections, and the auction.
I've reading up the new owners have to honour my lease, which was a 12 month lease, is there any circumstances where this can be different?
I am feeling really annoyed after just settling in but hey what can you do.
And will it look weird if I hang around for the opens? I don't like the idea of random strangers poking around while I'm not there.

[Hansie]

We are in Melbourne also. No, as long as the contract of sale states that there is a lease currently running they can not make you leave.
We bought our house 2 years ago & there was a lease running at the time.
What we did though & you may find this happen. Is we offered the tenant 2 months rent to move by the settlement date. They declined & we offered 3 months rent to move out by settlement. She counter offered with 4 months but with no guarantee to move by settlement so we left them to it. We gave them I think 4 or 6 weeks notice (whatever was legally required) that we would be taking over the property when the lease expired.
At the time I was heavily pregnant and ended up moving when DS2 was 8 weeks old.
So in answer no as a tenant you have all the rights as long as the contract states there is a lease running.
On 2 out of the 4 occasions we visited all or some of the family that tenanted was home. So no I wouldn't feel it was strange.

[Netix]

Hang around for all the opens if you want, I did, with all the kids, and request photo id for the visitors (for the real estate agent to record details) if it is not policy for the agent anyway. Just for peace of mind if you want.

As above, you can stay until the end of your lease. The agent *may* try to get you to agree to leaving earlier, as if both the new owner and tenant agree to early termination of the lease, then that is okay. Don't agree if you don't want to, don't feel pressured into agreeing.

Our place that we were living in was sold recently, so we have just been through all this.

ETA; if you are still there after your lease finishes at the end of twelve months, and the property is NOt sold, then you automatically go on to a month to month lease. Therefore, you only need to give 30 days notice that you are leaving. However, if after your twelve month lease ends, property NOT sold, and you're still there on your month to month, the agent must give you sixty days to vacate after the property is sold.

[shellbell3]

Thanks guys for the replies. I feel better about sticking around for the opens now. I'm a private person so the thought of people looking thru my cupboards etc makes me feel really uncomfortable.