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I am in PA. Our current year lease is up Aug 15th, and the lease stated it would then go month to month after 1 year. Which was great because we had planned on buying a house. We worked this year to get our credit in shape and we had started looking and got pre-approved a few months ago. We had been looking at houses since June, put a few offers in etc. We thought we had time to look for something we were comfortable making a 30 year commitment to because the lease stated it went month to month with a 30 day noticed needed to terminate.
Well today 8 stinkin' days before our lease ends I came home and a new lease was shoved in the door for us to sign. There is a rent increase among some other changes. 8 day notice on a rent increase?! Is that legal?!
So our rent raised $50, and the landlords will no longer take care of yard (we NEVER asked them to, they told us they were doing that when they showed us the house before we even committed to renting it) we can pay an additional $50 and they will continue take care of it, they said the cost of the equipment and maintaining it is too much. (which we may be forced to do, at least for the rest of this year. We have no equipment, and we would have to ask them for keys for the detached garage which we currently DO NOT have access to to store our yard equipment.) We are not allowed to take items in and out of the basement door because it's about ready to fall off it's hinges.
So basically $100 raised rent. We are now responsible for any type of drainage issues (the basement sewage backed up a while ago and they paid someone to come clear it. Nobody really knows what blocked it. There were little kids living here before us so it might not have been something we did) They also noted they took the cost of the plumber out of our security deposit, which I don't know if that is even legal since it can't be proven we were at fault for that. But going further we are responsible for any types of those repairs. We are no longer allowed to WASH our cars in their parking spaces in the driveway. We pay for the water, I don't get that one. And there were a few other little minor changes.
We have no idea what to do. They want this signed and returned ASAP. The old lease is up in 8 days. We want to buy a house, and have been planning to and if we have to sign another year then that is going to obviously be on hold unless we want to pay rent and a mortgage until they rent the place out again.
We are hoping they might agree to a 3 or 4 month lease. Or even a 6 month lease.
Other than that, I have no idea. I am afraid they are going to tell us sign for the year by Aug 15th or GTFO.
Our current year lease is up Aug 15th, and
the lease stated it would then go month to month after 1 year.
That is still the norm.
It probably stated a few other things related to that terminate/renewal idea though.
Read through it **carefully**
Quote:
today 8 stinkin' days before our lease ends I came home and a new lease for us to sign.
There is a rent increase among some other changes.
So our rent raised $50, and the landlords will no longer take care of yard
We have no idea what to do. ... The old lease is up in 8 days.
No it isn't. Not if it says what you asserted at the beginning.
The LL does however have the right to change terms (like raise rent, lawn, etc) with notice.
It probably stated a few other things related to that terminate/renewal idea though.
Read through it **carefully**
No it isn't. Not if it says what you asserted at the beginning.
The LL does however have the right to change terms (like raise rent, lawn, etc) with notice.
I will look over that again.
I know they can change terms, but does it need to be more than an 8 day notice? The rent is due in 8 days, will it be the old amount or will we need to pay the new $100 more?
Notice needs to be what the lease provides for... rarely is that less than 30 days.
Read PA landlord tenant laws too (probably linked in the first "sticky" on this forum) as state laws prevail and any lease clause which directly contradicts state law can't be upheld.
You can always send it back unsigned and let them know that you prefer to go month to month, as allowed in your current lease, and that you expect a 30 day notice of rent increase.
And start packing because I suspect that what comes back is your 30 day notice to vacate.
However, you really can not sign a lease for another year if you think you will be buying this fall. Be prepared to move your things into storage and either stay with relatives or rent a short term rental.
Don't get into a tiff with the current landlord because that can stop your mortgage. Banks occasionally call landlords for information before they issue a mortgage. I've had banks call me half a dozen times about different tenants who were buying. Fortunately, I could give them a glowing reference and they got their mortgage. But if I had said they were trouble and didn't pay what was due, the mortgage would have been denied.
Read your original lease it should state end of lease and what happens after, if it does not its under the assumution you are month to month until a new lease is signed or the LANDLORD is suppose to give you notice. Or you have 30 days or 60 days notice to let the landlord what you are planning on doing when its over. That also might be required in your lease to give notice of non renewal. You can court the lease with a month to month "number" which will ususally be higher then your normal rent is now. by about 100 dollars or so or sign a 6 month lease if the landlord is willing to do that.
Landlords want the unit rented if you need to stay pick a timeline and then get out when the time is up.
We signed for another year. (I am thrilled, can't you tell?) My husband approached them and was honest that we were house hunting. We thought the 1 year lease went month to month since A. We didn't hear anything from them 30 days prior, and B. Thats what the lease said.
They basically told him we sign for 1 year or we have 30 days notice to vacate. They told us "if we would have known prior to the lease being written we would have been ok with month to month." <--- that is utter bull**** and I know it.
Since we haven't even found a house yet, and we have pets and no relatives to stay with.. staying at an extended hotel would end up costing us more money. For storage, pet boarding, etc for however long it took.
So we signed the year, and we are doing the best we can to keep things peaceful as a PP said a mortgage lender might speak with them.
I don't think that will be the case because as we were in the process of getting a mortgage already, our lender needed copies of ALL rent checks to prove we paid. So they know we pay our rent.
But just in case.
I feel they were wrong and unreasonable with this situation. But, again we are trying to keep the peace. And we will be sure that next year we are out within enough time to avoid this.
We are not opposed to moving 1-2 months prior to the end of the lease, and obviously still paying them the rent money for those 2 months.
If we were do that, can they take legal action against us? Even if we pay them the rent, upfront, BEFORE we move out??
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