Landlord won't provide tenants with a lease
We live in a private house (3 floors), each floor is rented to different tenants. Everyone gets along great, maintains the propperty, rents are payed on time. The landlord lives off-site. My wife and I have been there over a year, our lease expired in April; the downstairs neighbors’ lease expired in Feb. B/w two appartments, we’ve asked half a dozent times for our landlord to send us a new lease, so far – nothing. It’s the end of August. We love our appartment and do not plan on moving any time soon (the landlond knows this). Everyone’s pretty nurvouse about not having a lease – what if they deside to sell the house? What rigths do we have as good tenants? How do we get a new lease? Thanks!
rondinella5
in Landlord 12 years and 9 months ago
5
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5 replies
MyGoodEye | 12 years and 9 months ago
As said above, you are protected by the same conditions of your expired lease so long as your landlord continues to cash your checks. This means that you will have to be notified in writing when the landlord wants to repossess the unit (minimum 30 days with all the caveats). This may not give you total comfort, but at least you can relax a little about being booted without reasonable/legal warning. Should that eviction come and be “outside” of the conditions of your “implied lease” (that’s what you now have so long as the LL cashes the rent checks), you can take the issue up with the courts and you will likely be found “correct”. Not that you’d really want to do that anyway… but that’s tangential… However, the LL owes you absolutely no explanation (legally) about their motivation(s). Certainly you may ask – and I recommend you do ask – but you may have to make your decisions based upon the evidence you already have. The sad truth (as I see it) is that if your LL has reasons for not wanting to renew your lease (whether it’s to sell or because they’re lazy), then you can choose to accept that and enjoy it while you can or choose to look elsewhere for a more stable proposition. If the LL isn’t forthcoming with information that satisfies you, then you may look at the month-to-month as an advantage to you, in that you are now able to find a better alternative and you are not locked into anything (beyond the 30 day notice you owe your LL). As a counterpoint (offered to maybe present a less nefarious LL motivation), I often allow my tenants to maintain month-to-month (after the initial lease has expired) in order to allow them flexibility. I ask them to adhere to the same standards (as they are by law anyway… give me 30 day notice so on so forth) and we all live happily ever after… All of that said, it is indeed true that it is dramatically easier to sell a house with tenants who can be vacated in 30 days as opposed to one with leases that expire many months away. You can do a little internet research to see if the house is indeed “on the market”. Although, I’d assume that were it truly up for sale at this time (publicly at least) there’d be a FOR SALE sign in the yard.
cupolacoffee | 12 years and 9 months ago
Ask your LL for a lease renewal in writing, not just by phone. As a month to month tenant, you have the same protections (or lack thereof) as was written in your expired lease. Depending on your relationship with your LL, ask whether s/he has plans to sell the building. If that’s what they’re planning, it’s highly unlikely they’re going to want to carry the cost of an empty building until the date of marketing and then sale. A smart LL would not be so smart to think you’ll hang around forever in a state of limbo, or that you’ll exit quickly and cooperatively after purposely being kept in the dark.
zampano | 12 years and 9 months ago
let’s say you get a one year lease – It only gets you a year down the line anyway
boredatwork | 12 years and 9 months ago
No right to a new lease unless the building is subject to rent control or stabilzation laws. You are now a month-to-month tenant and should act accordingly.
snarkolepctic | 12 years and 9 months ago
If the landlord won’t give any of you a new lease, I would assume s/he is considering selling and it’s a lot easier to sell with a month to month in place. You can’t force them to give you a new lease – my understanding is that after a year, without a signed lease, your terms are now month to month, which works both ways. You can dig your heels in but eventually you would have to move out if they chose to sell. I would ask straight out if they are thinking about selling the building, so you can start to look around if you need to.