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My wife and I are in the process of finding a house to buy. Our lease is up at the beginning of June so it doesn't look like we will be closed on a house by then(since we haven't found one). We would really prefer to slow the house hunt and wait for THE house to come on the market. Our current landlords are OK, we haven't had any problems with them, but they aren't the most sociable (We leave them alone, they leave us alone, they cash our check and call it a day).
We want to go month to month, but are worried they will pressure us into signing a lease if we bring it up. Our current lease says clearly that after the term, if they accept a check then it is considered a valid month to month agreement. The lease also says there's a $200 penalty for a broken lease. The wording as such:
"Landlord may require a $200.00 fee for subletting an apartment to accomodate an early termination of an apartment prior to the termination of Lease. This fee will be used to cover advertising and administration fees accrued in order to secure a new Tenant.".
Does this mean they would only charge $200 to get out of a lease early? (This property would rent same day, no problem)
So that was a lot of text to get to my question. Do I email them and explain our situation and tell them we wish to go month to month at the end of the lease, or do I ride it out and hope for it to default to month to month?
So that was a lot of text to get to my question.
Do I email them and explain our situation or...
You CALL them and TALK to them like adults.
After that conversation you WRITE a letter describing your understanding
of their willingness to cooperate with the open ended nature of your situation (or not).
Meanwhile you go about getting your loan pre-approval and looking for a house.
Your break lease fee is amazingly generous - most leases which have that contingency usually stipulate an amount equal to a couple of month's rent. Seems to me that even if you were required to sign a new lease, that penalty is easily doable. Your default is month to month and that's not unusual at all so you can either wait and see if your landlord contacts you about renewing it or let it just roll over to the month to month. But it's really easier and better for both parties to talk about it beforehand.
It won't take a minute to send the LL a simple email asking if he plans on entering into a new lease or just rolling over to the month to month. He may not care either way.
My wife and I are in the process of finding a house to buy. Our lease is up at the beginning of June so it doesn't look like we will be closed on a house by then(since we haven't found one). We would really prefer to slow the house hunt and wait for THE house to come on the market. Our current landlords are OK, we haven't had any problems with them, but they aren't the most sociable (We leave them alone, they leave us alone, they cash our check and call it a day).
We want to go month to month, but are worried they will pressure us into signing a lease if we bring it up. Our current lease says clearly that after the term, if they accept a check then it is considered a valid month to month agreement. The lease also says there's a $200 penalty for a broken lease. The wording as such:
"Landlord may require a $200.00 fee for subletting an apartment to accomodate an early termination of an apartment prior to the termination of Lease. This fee will be used to cover advertising and administration fees accrued in order to secure a new Tenant.".
Does this mean they would only charge $200 to get out of a lease early? (This property would rent same day, no problem)
So that was a lot of text to get to my question. Do I email them and explain our situation and tell them we wish to go month to month at the end of the lease, or do I ride it out and hope for it to default to month to month?
The way I interpret it is the $200 simply covers the advertizing and admin fees to secure a tenant. It does nothing to absolve you from paying the required termination fees if you do terminate the lease early. And only if you terminate the lease early
I wouldn't bring anything up. So don't bring it up. Once your yearly lease is over it just converts to a month to month term. No other changes lease stands as is. All you need to do at that point is simply give 30 day notice before you wish to end the month to month term.
You do not need to do anything at the end of the lease. The lease already states the term changes to month to month. Unless you want to change terms I would do nothing more than send in your monthly payment, if the LL wants to do any changes either. In terms or monthly rent he has to give you a notice of at least 30 days for any changes to be legally effective. In some cases 60 days depending on your states laws.
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