Moving and apartment leases (relocate, rental, expensive, want to move)

[strawberrykiki]

This might be mostly a vent, so please forgive me. My lease is up at the end of June. I know I want to move, so I decided not to sign another lease. The penalty for this is 100 extra dollars a month to go month to month with no lease, plus of course my rent went up anyway. I have a friend who just bought a house (after fulfilling a year lease at her place) and the complex refuses to go month to month, so she was forced to sign another lease. She's responsible for paying the rent as usual and an additional 100 dollars a month for them to advertise the place AND when they do find another renter they are still going to charge her a 500 fee to terminate the lease. Is this typical? What in the heck do most people do when they need to move/buy a house/whatever? It really really sucks I have to pay 100 more dollars a month when I'm trying to save for a move. And my poor friend who is trying to pay a mortgage, rent, and all kinds of fees.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by strawberrykiki

My lease is up at the end of June. I know I want to move, so I decided not to sign another lease.
The penalty for this is 100 extra dollars a month to go month to month with no lease...

in lieu of raising the rent for up to X months...

...plus of course my rent went up anyway.

One or the other is within reasonable. Both is criminal.
If you stay beyond X months (without a lease) they can always raise the rent then.

Is this typical? It really really sucks...

What you're up against are the property managers (not the property owners ~LL's)
seeking and exploiting opportunities to gig tenants. Had you stayed and renewed they would
have wanted to charge your for that process as well.

[unthought_known]

I disagree that 'Both is criminal."

Raising the rent after the lease is up, that's something that happens due to the rental market. I've had landlords that haven't raised the rent, but in 2 of my last 4 apartments, as the lease was about to expire I received a letter saying that my rent is going up (in one case it was $100/month, in another it was $200/month). There's nothing abnormal about raising rent as time goes on.

Adding $100/month for month-to-month isn't abnormal either. Plenty of places charge one rate if you lock in for a year, and another rate if you go month to month. Heck, it's not just apartments - most gyms will charge different rates based on how long you commit for.

As for the main question, a lot of people have dual payments when they're moving. I've moved apartments with a day of overlap, and I've also had upwards of a month of overlap. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

[jasper12]

Renters get screwed. I have never, ever, been given backmy full ddeposit, except one place, with a greatlease agent, he was a cool gay gguy . the rest were mean old biddies.

I am moving now, unplanned, sort of... I hate moving. Never want to do it

It is what it is... .

[katie45]

I agree that switching to month-to-month vs. a yearly lease is expensive. Problem I have with yearly leases is that (due to financial issues) I'm on several 'wait lists' to move into a low cost senior apartment complex and I never know when/if I'll get notified that a unit is available. If it's around the time my lease will expire that would be great, but as a rule, I'm finding that they call during the middle of my lease and to get out of a lease I have to pay a minimum of two months rent, plus continue paying rent until a new tenant moves in, and there's no guarantee when that will be.

I can understand why a LL would prefer a tenant be on a lease vs. month-to-month; and I accept that it's a business for them, but as a tenant we have issues as well.

[strawberrykiki]

I know LL's need to keep their places filled so they're not losing money, but it seems ridiculous how unaccomodating some of them are about people who buy houses, need to relocate for work, etc. Especially if you've fulfilled a year lease already and were a good tenant who paid on time.