When should a letting agency start working on a renewal?

Working backwards from the termination date is the only reliable way to schedule a renewal, because every statutory period is expressed as a period before expiry rather than a date of its own.

The schedule Re-Lease applies to every lease, counted in business days before the termination date, is:

• 90 business days — agency re-engagement: confirm the mandate is current and the landlord's contact details still work.
• 80 business days — payment gate: confirm the account is in good standing before renewal work begins.
• 60 business days — landlord enquiry: ask the landlord whether they want to renew, and on what terms.
• 45 business days — landlord non-response fallback: escalate, so a silent landlord does not consume the statutory notice window.
• 30 business days — tenant offer deadline: the offer must be with the tenant with time left to decide.
• 21 business days — signature stage: the renewal documents go out for signature.
• 0 — the termination date itself, by which the final renewal pack must be complete.

The 60 and 45 business day steps are deliberately placed so that a tenant notice issued off the back of them still lands inside the 40-to-80 business day window that section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act requires.

Ninety business days is close to five calendar months once weekends and public holidays are stripped out, which is why renewals that feel far away are usually already live.

Disclaimer: This is general information about South African lease-renewal procedure, not legal advice. Dates are calculated from the information you provide and from published public holidays. Check them against your lease and take your own legal advice before acting.