Landlord won't renew lease
Me and my significant other have been the ideal tenants for the past year. We always pay the rent on time and only contact our landlord when the heat isn’t on and it’s freezing cold outside. Our lease is up at the end of March and we want to renew it. We received a letter…
Me and my significant other have been the ideal tenants for the past year. We always pay the rent on time and only contact our landlord when the heat isn’t on and it’s freezing cold outside. Our lease is up at the end of March and we want to renew it. We received a letter from our landlord saying she is not interested in renewing the lease with us. When we called to ask why, she refused to discuss it. Now we have 30 days to find a new place. Is this legal?
Tomis – you provide an interesting counter-point to the “love it or leave it” approach of some (“hated it, left it”?). I don’t agree, however, that the original poster said anything that can lead us to conclude that there was any absence of common courtesy here. Also, being a renter does not necessarily make anyone a “have not” nor does owning a brownstone necessarily make one a “have.” This is all too simplistic and unrealistic.
I have been a renter in the city for over 25 years in over 10 different apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Finding decent housing took precedent over career goals and the cycle of trying to achieve a balance of sanity and trying to establish and maintain a decent quality of life has taken it’s toll and I decided a few months ago to live elsewhere for a better quality of life for less, both financially and emotionally. The rent laws in the city are archaic and I believe that as long as they are kept in place they only sustain an inequity that breeds this struggle between the lucky and the haves and haves less. At the end of the day a contract is a contract and the terms agreed to by both parties and the terms are usually very clear. To expect “common courtesy” between landlords and renters is a tall order in this environment. Civility has been eroded by unfair laws and an environment that fosters greed and no accountability. My lesson: if you don’t like the game, stop playing and move on. It’s a big world and there are better places to live and be healthy, courteous, and accountable for one’s actions. The fact that people need to get answers about a contract they have entered into from a website forum is a glaring example of what I am referring to.
read your lease. it’s that simple.
*time
anon 10:56 “It’s called common courtesy”
No It’s called business and maybe it’s none of the tenant’s damn business why they need their space back. Dont expect courtesy when you were not courteous enough to tell him or her your plans of staying another year.
Next remember the lease is for both parties.Be proactive and approach your landlord 2 months prior to the end of the lease and ask him or her thier plans I’m sure he would of warned you.
Anon 1:55,
Being an “IDEAL” tenant is very very ‘RELATIVE’ and subjective. Maybe the landlord doesn’t think they are such good tenants after all…. And chooses not to make up some excuse as to why they are not renewing the lease. Maybe the landlord doesn’t like the smell that comes from the rented apartment. Or the strange sounds…. or their choice of clothes…
The point remains, the landlord has no obligation to share WHY they choose not to renew the lease.
It’s not a question of forcing anyone, read the posts above. No one is disputing the legality, or the right, of the landlord to not renew.
It’s called common courtesy. Picking up the phone and explaining to a good tenant why the lease cannot be renewed is a normal business call, but apparently not in the view of the posters here. OP, you can be lucky you’re not a tenant of these people. These type of landlords are exactly the people who get “bad” tenants and then whine about how they’ve being screwed.
The landlord may be expanding his family…. May even have a distant cousin that needs the house…. or may be even selling the home….
The bottom line is, you enter into a ‘1 year lease’ for a given purpose. You want access to an apartment and all that comes with that apartment for a year. A landlord agrees to those terms. While being a good tenant is a great thing, it has no bearing on the legality of the landlords decision not to renew.
and no, it doesn’t suck. It’s exactly as it should be. Just like on the flip side. If as a tenant you decide you want to leave after a year, should the landlord be able to force me to continue to pay rent at his place for another year? absolutely not!
Why is it so arrogant to communicate in writing and not to want to discuss reasons? That seems to be a huge overreaction by people who don’t know the specific facts.