Renew Lease - Change of Terms last minute (tenant, rental, deposit)
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My lease is up 5/31 and the landlord asked me sometime in April if we were staying or leaving. We said we were staying. He said ok and the lease would stay the same, etc.. Upon paying Mays he confirmed we were staying and said he would draw up a new lease. Now on 5/28 he says, I have a new lease, I'm requiring MORE deposit (basically double) and changing the due date for rent before its late. Seems shady that 3 days before the new lease is suppose to be signed and go into affect he changes the terms which basically handcuffs us because we can't find a new place in 2 days. Can he do this or does he need to provide written notice that he's changing the terms? Help!
Umm, why would he want more deposit and change the due date. Were you late on rent several times? Did someone in your household have a change in job circumstances (credit rating), commit a crime or something? What was the landlords reasoning for the change? Guess its easy to look back, but do you have any documentation that he said nothing would change?
He can change the terms as long as they conform to your state's laws (they're linked in the first "sticky" on this forum). What does your lease say about intent to renew? If you told him in April that you were staying he should have told you then of any upcoming changes to the lease and they should have been in writing. However, it seems he didn't put in writing that the lease would remain the same. This is a good lesson to learn which is whenever you have any oral discussion about leases and their terms you follow up at least with a confirming email documenting the conversation.
I would remind him - in writing - that he told you in April that the lease would stay the same and that he's left it far too late for you to have a chance to review these changes and make your decision whether or not to sign a new lease. Even if your lease rolled over to a month to month he has to give you 30 days notice of any changes.
Tell him that you will look over the lease but that in the meantime you will pay May's rent at the same rate and let him know your decision as soon as you've had a chance to review the changes. You will then officially be on a month to month basis and, if you decide not to sign a new lease, will need to give him 30 days notice or whatever your state laws mandate.
The landlord can do that. We often have changed the grace period due date to make the period shorter but that is usually shortened by 2 days and we have over time increased the late fee initial amount which the law is allowing us to do.
We also have changed the renewal time frame options since it seems tenants are having the feeling they can make the owners wait until they feel they are ready.
We don't put any pressure on any tenant to resign but due to the delays we have changed that to only 5 days as a decision period to renew and even though they can decide later still to renew the rental amount increase if they decide later will be higher and if the property gets listed than the current tenants can only rent at that increased amount so it will be in their best interest to decide sooner than later and not acting like the owner is their servant and it will be decided at the last moment.
What does your lease say about renewing? Can't really answer this without knowing that.
My guess is that any changes would have to be made with at least 30 days notice. If you don't like the new terms, tell him you give 30 days notice to move out. If that's an option.
If I could afford it, that's what I'd do. I wouldn't care about changing the due date, as it's usually the 1st of the month anyway. But, if they wanted to double my deposit, we'd have a problem.
Methinks theres a rent payment story here that we haven't heard. That, and an amateur landlord.
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