VIC Lease break clause

[Hazards87]

I'm a tenant having an issue with an agency following a lease break, and I'm trying understand whether a clause in the residential rental agreement document is invalid.

In the Residential Tenancies Act in Victoria it says that:

A residential rental agreement must not include any of the following terms—
...
(c) a term that provides that if the renter contravenes the residential rental agreement, the renter is liable to pay—
(i) all or part of the remaining rent under the residential rental agreement

However in the Residential rental agreement we signed (I've removed agent's business name), point 73 states:

73. Rental Provider Expenses
If the Renter decides to vacate the Premises during the term of this Agreement for whatever reason, the Renter shall be responsible for reimbursing to the Rental Provider or xxx the following costs:
...

4. The continued payment of Rental until the first to occur of the Premises being relet or the current term of this Agreement expiring;

Isn't including this term contradictory to the regulations? Tenants Victoria website suggests that it is against the law to include this term.

Please can you clarify for me?

 

[Rod]

Regardless of what the lease states, if you break the lease then you pay until either the end of the lease or until someone moves in.

And yes, the above term of the lease is likely not valid, but the law provides anyway for you to pay the remainder of the lease. Having an invalid term does not render void the whole lease.

What the law is trying to do is stop rental providers claiming trivial reasons for a break of lease, kicking out the renter, and then making the renter pay.