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I'm in a situation right now where I confirmed to my landlord that I would continue to rent out a room I was staying in for the summer and school term after my 12 month lease was finished through an e-mail. However, due to unfortunate financial circumstances I e-mailed him telling him that I wont be able to stay for the summer and school term. I haven't signed any official lease papers of any sort as to agreeing to terms of staying for another 12 months.
So, I'm wondering whether he has any rights or laws against me that says I'm binded for another 12 months for saying that I was going to stay through an e-mail, when I didn't signed the lease.
I'm in a situation right now where I confirmed to my landlord that I would continue to rent out a room I was staying in for the summer and school term after my 12 month lease was finished through an e-mail. However, due to unfortunate financial circumstances I e-mailed him telling him that I wont be able to stay for the summer and school term. I haven't signed any official lease papers of any sort as to agreeing to terms of staying for another 12 months.
So, I'm wondering whether he has any rights or laws against me that says I'm binded for another 12 months for saying that I was going to stay through an e-mail, when I didn't signed the lease.
Thank you very much.
A lot depends on Landlord/Tenant Law in your State...
In my State of CA... rentals less than a year can be Oral and are enforceable... although that provides it's own set of problems...
Fact is, most areas I know put the burden on the Landlord to mitigate damages by actively marketing the rental... your campus should be able to assist you through the Housing Office.
You're in Canada, but I know in the U.S. a conntract, in certain situations, does not have to be signed to be binding. I was involved in such a case, and the short of it turned out to be that if all parties act and behave as if the contract had been signed, it was as good as signed. In my case I had some people try to weasel out of a lease because the husband had never signed the lease (but the wife had).
If the landlord has not taken action to fill the space that he would otherwise have teken without your email, and he in fact has held the property for you such that you've controlled it, I think you have acted as if you had a deal, and you've benefited from the deal even if you changed your mind.
Let him know your plans have changed and ask him if it's a problem. He may say "no" and it's all a mute point.
What happened was that I told my landlord that I was interested in staying during the month of February for another year through an e-mail and he said that he would come around in the next couple of days to get the leases signed but he never did. I haven't seen my landlord since sometime in the middle of January and so I came back to the house in the beginning of May and moved out because I decided that I didn't want to live there anymore.
I have told him my plans have changed and that I wasn't interested in staying anymore. He's saying it is a problem because I said that I was going to stay for another year back in February by e-mail.
By all means, if my landlord had come to the house by appointment to get the lease signed. He would have a signed copy of the lease in his possession right now and there wouldn't be a problem at all.
Does it have a provision for going month to month after the initial term or anything else you're obligated to... such as giving 30 days notice after the lease term has expired?
I'm guessing you mentioned your financial trouble and rather than waiting to be evicted... you've decided to move.
What happened was that I told my landlord that I was interested in staying during the month of February for another year through an e-mail and he said that he would come around in the next couple of days to get the leases signed but he never did. I haven't seen my landlord since sometime in the middle of January and so I came back to the house in the beginning of May and moved out because I decided that I didn't want to live there anymore.
I have told him my plans have changed and that I wasn't interested in staying anymore. He's saying it is a problem because I said that I was going to stay for another year back in February by e-mail.
By all means, if my landlord had come to the house by appointment to get the lease signed. He would have a signed copy of the lease in his possession right now and there wouldn't be a problem at all.
Sounds possibly like you and the owner, through inaction, have rolled into a month to month situation. That's how it would be deemed in Texas, regardless of the email, now that you've explained it further. You'd have to read the specific language of your original lease agreement and see what it says about automatic extensions of the lease term, which are typically MTM in the U.S.
My original 12 month lease was up as of the month of April 09 and because he had not contacted me to get the new lease signed all the way back in February, I moved out.
Now, my landlord is saying that I have to pay for the month of May because he says I gave him assurances that I was going to stay. I gave a call to the Tenant and Landlord board and they said that my landlord gave me insufficient information for the e-mail to be considered as a verbal agreement as to renewing the lease for another 12 months, which is exactly how I felt as well.
The e-mail back in February went exactly as worded, tell me what you guys think.
Landlord - "Hello, Can you please confirm if you are going to stay for another year?"
Me - "I'll be staying"
That's it, never came to get the new leases signed after that.
After that e-mail, he didn't make any effort to make an appointment with me to get the lease signed all the way up until I moved out, he said he would come by many times. He never showed, not to mention in the past he's come to the house many times without the tenants being aware 24 hrs prior.
Saying that, I have another question. Lets just say there was a 30 days notice, however the landlord didn't make any appointments to get the lease signed from the day I sent my e-mail in February. Can he still use that against me to get another months rent from me because I moved out solely because I didn't want to be charged month by month?
sorry for the long reply guys, but this is stressing me out.
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