A few days ago I made an appointment with my tenants (a married couple) to sign a lease renewal. They missed the appointment, and my two calls to their cellphone went to voicemail.

Is it acceptable to just leave the one-page renewal form at their door for them to sign and return to me?


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Definitely time to correspond in writing. Does their lease define the terms of renewal? If I had to guess they are stalling. It’s a tactic that many tenants use when they are actively looking for a new place and haven’t found anything yet, or have found something but it isn’t available for occupancy until after their lease with you ends. As grand army said, they may also want to default to month-to-month. This gives them some extra time to figure out what they are doing. Having month-to-month tenants isn’t the worst thing. They still have to pay rent (or you can choose to raise it) and you can ask them to vacate within 30 days at any time. If you don’t want to deal with this, don’t accept rent for any period beyond the end of their lease term, and serve them with a 30 day vacate notice once sufficient time for them to execute the renewal lease has elapsed.

    Ultimately, donatella is right, this is a business – you need to ensure that you have a vacancy period that is as short as possible. If not already present, you may also want to consider updating your lease to address timing for renewal along w/ language that basically says if they don’t respond, you will assume that they will vacate upon end of lease term.

  2. No. Leave a note and tell them that the lease ends on such and such date. That you expect that they contact you by such and such date. If not, you have to assume that they will be vacating. This is a business.