Our landlord is selling our rental (lease, tenant, renter, deposits)

[Tarara Boomdea]

Our landlord is selling our rental house. It's no palace and the rent was a bit high, but we are comfortable here.

However, we don't want to be here when it's being shown. We had a bad experience showing our last rental for the landlord and this time, one member of the family is chronically ill.

The property manager emailed me the news on May 15. He said the owners would contact me. He said they're doing FSBO and want to start showing it on July 1. The wife will do the showings.

I emailed them right away and explained the situation and what we are going to do - no reply. I re-sent the email to be sure they'd gotten it, still no reply.

The non-response puzzles me . Maybe there's nothing else to say.

Meantime, we're packing. I want to comply with the lease, so I will have to give them notice on May 31 to avoid being here during the showings. This worries me since I haven't had much luck finding a suitable rental.

[logline]

Any chance you can buy instead of rent? All these problems go away when you are the master of your own domain. It's still cheaper to own in Las Vegas than to rent:

Buying Cheaper Than Renting, But Some Mortgages Make It a Closer Call

[ddrhazy]

Call the property manager or the landlord and talk to them directly. If that doesn't work, send a letter by registered mail. I would tell them your intentions immediately as they may even agree on a closer moving date(if that is something you want).

[Tarara Boomdea]

Originally Posted by ddrhazy

Call the property manager or the landlord and talk to them directly. If that doesn't work, send a letter by registered mail. I would tell them your intentions immediately as they may even agree on a closer moving date(if that is something you want).

I did, in the emails I sent them. I'm calling the PM on Tuesday, but maybe there's nothing else to say. As the lease requires, we have to give them 30 days notice (May 31 for a June 30 move out date.) I don't think we could do it any earlier than that.

I think they're upset about having to pay the mortgage in the interim between our departure and the sale. They're hoping to sell it expense-free, hence FSBO and their assumption we'd stay until it is sold. Just a theory.

We're not going through showings for anyone else ever again. It's like training someone to take your job.

[Tarara Boomdea]

Logline said: It's still cheaper to own in Las Vegas than to rent

I think about it every month when I see that big chunk of change removed from our checking account. Getting the boot is the biggest downside of renting.

So, a new place for another year (or two) it is! I'm looking at rent.com, hotpads.com, craigslist, etc. I'll take a shot - if you have a house to rent, please message me! (Never late with rent. We need a 3 bedroom one story or a two story with one downstairs bedroom, 1750 sq ft, 2250 max for husband, daughter and mother. No pool; pools are a PITA.)

[airics]

How are pools a pita? The ll would handle the maintenance.

[Tarara Boomdea]

Well, it's true that the LL usually would take care of it, but when our last landlord was going into foreclosure, he stopped paying the pool service company, so we had to start paying it ourselves; he didn't argue when I told him I would take it out of the rent.

We were always worried about it, since it was not ours and on the rare occasion there was any trouble with it (as reported by the pool maintenance company), he would ask "What did you do to it?"

I was the only one who used it, too. Not even the dog (recently gone gone to heaven at 15) would get in without being lured by cheese. A labrador (water dog)!

All in all, I can live without it.

[anna shun]

This is horrible to say, but as a property owner who has had experience with tenants, you should know this: You are under no obligation to stop your living your life when there are showings. I once was a tenant and had to deal with showings by the landlord. The first opening, my husband and I were very friendly.. talking to the prospective buyers, even popping popcorn..
Gah, we were suckers.

Your landlord selling your property is in their interest, not yours. And in the interim, you will have your life upheaved for packing, moving, plus unexpected costs incurred of placing deposits, moving cotst, etc.

Live your life as you normally would when there are openings. If it's dinner time, it's dinnertime. You are not obligated to answer prospective buyers' questions or give tours,-- you are not even obligated to clean the place. If you think of your time as a capital asset, you must know that you are getting nothing in return for expending this asset or effort.

The landlord may have more , ahem, motivation to want you out if it's a bad show for buyers when they come around. Justlet them know, if they want you out sooner, they can facilitate this better by covering costs for a fast move on your part. If not, just LIVE YOUR LIFE if you can. It sucks, but they are infringing upon you for days YOU have paid to them to rent the property. They should be working around YOU.

Consult your local landlord tenant laws too, you should know what your rights in this situation here.

[WVREDLEG]

Originally Posted by anna shun

Your landlord selling your property is in their interest, not yours. And in the interim, you will have your life upheaved for packing, moving, plus unexpected costs incurred of placing deposits, moving cotst, etc..

Correct. It is their property, and as long as the owners are abiding by the lease, none of the expenses are unexpected. A renter lives (even somewhat acknowledged by the OP) in perpetual migration, usually measured in 12 month spans. Renting gives one a certain amount of flexibility in life, but it comes with a price....background and credit checks every time one moves, packing and unpacking, security and other deposits.

Originally Posted by anna shun

The landlord may have more , ahem, motivation to want you out if it's a bad show for buyers when they come around. Justlet them know, if they want you out sooner, they can facilitate this better by covering costs for a fast move on your part. If not, just LIVE YOUR LIFE if you can. It sucks, but they are infringing upon you for days YOU have paid to them to rent the property. They should be working around YOU.

So leveraging bad behavior to squeeze concessions out of the owner is acceptable? You imply, rather foolishly, that tanking a showing is justifiable behavior for the inconvenience. All that has happened is that the Property Manager gave 45 days notice that the owners will begin showing the place on July 1. If the tenant is going to break the lease because of showings, it would seem wise to negotiate an early departure before sabotaging a home showing. I don't think the OP said anything about the owner NOT working around them, only the absence of communication. I think the OP is dreading the parade of strangers trampling through their domicile, not an evil owner conspiring to dislodge them.

Originally Posted by anna shun

Consult your local landlord tenant laws too, you should know what your rights in this situation here.

Good advice, but hardly any surprises about advance notification to enter property. Nothing in the opening post hints at the PM or owner doing anything wrong. The OP is a renter who longs for the convenience of ownership AND renting but none of the problems that come with either option--who can blame someone for that?

OP: I sincerely hope the chronically ill person in your household gets well, and I hope you find a place soon.

[anna shun]

I may have made my point poorly, and for that I apologize..

Living life as you normally conduct isn't what I think of as "bad behavior", I'm emphasizing that this tenant need not go out of his way to accomodate a landlord who is showing the property. Maybe this isn't the option they will choose, but I'm putting it out there. I am probably more cynical on landlords than you and this probably all sounds sketch, but this is done all the time. Tenants should not be put out of their way to accomodate something that will not benefit them, and what applies on the first day they sign their lease applies to the very last. Unless fair terms are negotiated, and yes, I would include concessions for them to leave, their lives shouldn't be interrupted bc it is an infringement upon their paid for time as tenants.

They should still research local landlord tenant laws, and remember this is business and only business btw you and your landlord.