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Karen & Magic Touch, I think what both of you are talking baout is the Tru-Up or Level Off month calculations. Your lease probably is legally looked at like a 30 day rental period, no reduction for February shorter motnha and no increase for the longer 31 day months. Since odds are that the shorter February does not level off or tru-up the extra 31 day months, at the end of the lease the final 30 day period is reduced to 28 days to balance out the entire year (or twelve 30-day periods). This may or may not be what you have but in the ways of renting, its the only example I keep finding that makes sense.
Um, no, STT Resident, my point is that I DID NOT agree to pay for days after the lease ended. In ANN ARBOR (and it sounds like in some places in NYC), the leases were written in such a way that you DID agree to pay 12 months of rent for 11.5 months of living in that place (your 1st year). But the New Hampshire lease was not written that way. It was like "$900 is the monthly rent." So why would you think you needed to pay for days that were NOT covered by the lease, after you moved out? Does anyone have an answer to that?
It is, as MagicTouch wrote, a way for them to have the previous tenant pay for days when they are cleaning for the next tenant (although it seems to me that should be a cost borne by the LL). And I understand if the lease is written like the ones in Ann Arbor. But this was a "regular" lease that gave a "regular" monthly rent. If the lease ENDS before the end of your final month (and you move out on time, as I did), why do you have to continue paying for the days after the lease ends? THAT is what I am asking.
I remain confused. I understand what you're asking but I'm having difficulty grasping exactly what your lease actually said. I would have loved to be able to read its relevant clauses if you still had a copy of it but this was some years ago and of course is now a moot point. As said, I've never heard of a lease term being written in the way you describe and the very fact that the property management company declined your pro-rated deduction leads me to believe that there was some part of that agreement that you misinterpreted. Hopefully someone else can offer some light on the subject!
Manderly6, MagicTouch is right, it makes no difference when you move in.
Of course it could matter. You have to couple that with the payments. Perhaps the first month's rent excluded the few extra days and they got picked up in the last month's rent.
I'm not saying this is the case, but it is certainly possible.
To put it simple, if you have a lease that says you should be out on the 28th of April, you should not have paid for the 29th and 30th. That is of course assuming all items were out within that time.
Unless there is some confusion on your part as to when your lease ended, or if there was any items still left in the apartment. You were not obligated to paying those 2 days and you were ripped off.
Did your management company switch during the time you were living there? Maybe there was some confusion on the part of whoever billed you. They probably just assumed your lease ended on 30th and billed you accordingly. It sounds to me like they may not have realized your lease expired on the 28th.
Unless you lease is stating that you have a monthly cycle of 28 days, otherwise you have to pay the 2 days.
Our leases are calculated on a 30 day pro ration if pro ration is needed. That means that Febr. will also be calculated for pro ration by 30 days, and so will January.
I've never understood the complication of using anything other than a calendar month in leases and I've neither offered for signature or been asked to sign anything other than that. What's the point of it?
Manderly6, sorry, I should have said that if you moved in before the 1st of any month, you paid for those days FIRST, then your "year" started. So what I meant by "it didn't matter" is that those days WERE PAID FOR separately -- you didn't get "free days" when moving in before the first. I personally moved in on the 1st of May and knew that my lease would end on April 28th of the next year. Since I closed on my house on March 12th of that year, I still had plenty of time to move and I was indeed completely out of the place on the 28th. They didn't question that at all when they returned my security deposit -- they didn't take anything out for damages, cleaning, etc. -- just for the 2 days that I had not paid for because my lease was over.
ALL leases ended on the 28th of the month. They were definitely written as normal monthly leases, nothing pro-rated (UNLESS you moved in early, in which those days were pro-rated) -- i.e. there was DEFINITELY nothing about "average 30-day months" (I have never seen that in a lease so would have noticed it). If you lived there more than a year, then your 2nd and subsequent years began on the 29th and ended on the 28th.
I have always thought it was odd that they made me pay for 2 days after the lease ended, which is why I remember the details so clearly. If I ever find that lease (I seriously doubt that I kept it after all this time!), I will post again with the details as I remain curious. :-)
I have always thought it was odd that they made me pay for 2 days after the lease ended, which is why I remember the details so clearly.
Uncommon? Yes
Odd? No.
It's a sign of a property owner that used a very well versed lawyer to design their lease and the property was in a state with a definition of month. Often you will see the landlord tenant laws talk about a leae and "month" but with no definition of what is a month. We all assume that a month means a caleneder month but not every satte defins it that way. Some use the 30 day period while others use the 30.4 designation. A smaret lawyer may know that somewhere ion the laws is a law that defines month ina certain way, so they tailor the lease to reflect that meaning. You may see something like the lease is for 12 months as defind under law bla-bla-bla, that law may be based on other than a full calender month. Int he end, the lawyer tailors it in such a way that although your tenancy ended on the 28th of the month, that is all you have paid for anyway. You are thinking you have paid until the end of the calender month when what was done was it was shifted, tru-up, leveled off, or whatever they call it, so that your actual end date was 2 or 3 days before the end of the month. It very hard for most people to understand because we think month as in a calender month (no matter if 28, 30 or 31 days) but some good lawyers can use the laws to create months of X days and Y fraction of a day each which means at the end of 11 months the next (last) month is only 28 days and you vacate 2 days before then actual 30 day period.
I seem to remember that all the leases I have signed stated what the total amout of payments would be. The monthly was just math.
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