Need advice urgently on a lease (apartment, leases, month-to-month)

[gopolo14]

I want to start off by saying I am operating under the assumption that I am screwed and am doing everything I can to find a new place to live, but I cant contact any services for help until tomorrow.

Last october my landlords sold the apartment buildings I live in to someone new. The new people honored the old leases of course and mine was up three days ago August 25th like it has been for the seven years I have lived here.

The landlord put up a notice in january about lease renewals, but I was so used to the way the old landlords did it because leases end in june and August here. Usually I recieved a notice taped on my door in may and I signed the renewal and put it with June's rent.

The communication isnt as good with these new landlords. I contacted them april-june per my old lease agreement because I was going to be a bit late on my rent (paychecks came too late) and that I would be adding the $50 fee to my $450 rent.

At no time when I called him, which I always start out with telling him my name, the buildings I live in, and my address, did he say to me 'by the way we havent heard if you want to renew your lease or not.'

A month ago they taped notices to our doors about the removal of the rent deposit box and that we had to now mail our money orders or checks, no note was written there either for me.

Yesterday I came home from work to a note on the door that said my lease had ended August 25th and to call him. I did and told him i would like to renew the lease, he then informed me he had rented out my apartment three weeks ago and that I have until the first of september to vacate.

I have a garage with them and I said I would like to renew that so I have a place to keep my things just in case. I am looking for a new place since I dont want to lose my job. My grandma and uncle live in minnesota and are living with other relatives right now, they are poorer than I am. I have a distant cousin who helped me get the apartment in the first place after my mom died abruptly and I was lost, but she lives several towns away so I would lose my job. Also I have two cats and she and her husband have four dogs (three small ones) and a cat already. They do have a spare room I could keep them in but I am reluctant to ask her to do that.

If I had to give up the pets I have had for 15years, then... to be dramatic, I dont need a place to live if I've drowned myself in a lake due to depression.

I cant call any services until tomorrow but I am packing and cleaning just in case. Can I do anything besides being a holdover and having to get legally evicted? Do I still have some sort of 30 days notice or not? The landlord does have a place to rent, a 2 bedroom for $600 but I cant afford that, I dont even make that much a month. Ideally I would get 30 days to move and he could put the tenant in his 2 bedroom for a month, but I doubt things will work out that way.

And yes I am aware that this wouldnt be a problem if I had called in january, but I didnt due to several reasons which all tie in to lasting depression. No I wont really drown myself even if everything becomes very terrible.

[Rynldsbr]

Tenant rights and consumer protection information attached in this link. https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Publicati...nantGuide.aspx


Communication is key in situations like this. I can tell you as a former landlord in WI it is very difficult to evict if the tenant "plays the game" well. You would have to deny being told there was going to be a renewal and that you never received the notice. It will be up to the landlord to prove they made every possible effort to help you.


Tenant Resource Center
Another link with info for tenants.


In reality, this is the reason you need to act like an adult when involved in legal affairs and contracts like leases. Putting off will not make it better.

[gopolo14]

True, I did thing things would just be okay and had no idea this would happen. I confess to being rather naive especially since this is the first place I have lived in alone and knew nothing about renting processes beforehand.

I have been researching diligently and I think it all comes down to what is specified in my lease about automatic renewals or month to month, but I need to go home and check the wording first.

Otherwise I believe that the ending of the lease unless otherwise stipulated means that I do not have a right to a month-to-month unless by law it reverts to a month to month after a lease ends no matter the language of the lease. Of course I always have the option to be a holdover and have him take me to court, which I think I can divert by moving out within a 30 day period of my lease ending, and I also believe that if I move out before September 25th that I may not be liable for losses incurred to the landlord if for example the tenant he had rented to filed a suit for losses incurred by having to find somewhere else to stay on such short notice. It depends on the wording in the lease as to when a notice for renewal has to be given to me. If the one posted notice in January is all he was required to do and I failed to respond, then it may not be his legal responsibility to have had to contact me to ask further, even if it would have been welcomed because I provided an equal failure to contact or respond.

Either way it will find an ending and I will live somewhere else and may or may not have to pay for losses for a period of time, and will definitely have learned something about all of this. It comes down to the fact that I simply do not have the resources or the time to move out right away although I am pursuing help with housing/deposit with emergency services and doing what I can to get out as fast as possible with what resources I have. If I could be out in a week I would, although ideally I don't want to move at all and would like to continue the lease as long as there isn't any bad blood, though there isn't any from my end.

Thank you for your reply.