End of lease (apartment, month-to-month, new home)

[pbaughman]

I plan on moving at the end of my apartment lease. Do I have to give the landlord a 30 day notice or can I just move out prior to the end of the lease. My rent is paid to the end of the month which is when the lease ends. I live in Wyoming.

[sunsprit]

Much depends upon the actual clauses in your lease, so you need to read that.

It's pretty common to specify that you need to give them a 30-day notice of your move-out intent at the last month. Otherwise the lease may roll over to a month-to-month tenancy and you could be stuck with another month's rent payment.

As a landlord, I'd suggest that notifying your landlord about your intent to move out prior to the end of the paid lease term is a simple courtesy which is much appreciated. If all is paid up and there's no damage to mitigate, I'm happy to get into the unit early to get it into rental-ready condition again and get another tenant as quickly as possible. This allows me to refund any security/damage deposit to a tenant as quickly as possible. I've even been able to refund part of the last month lease payment to a former tenant when it was appropriate ... when I had adequate notice of the vacancy and time to get the unit back into the market and rented before the end of that last paid month by the former tenant. Your landlord, of course, may be different than me, but I appreciated the considerate behavior on the part of my former tenant.

[WyoNewk]

I don't recall Wyoming law on that subject, but I have it in my lease that the tenant must give me 30 days notice, even at the end of the lease. In other words, when the 12-month-lease runs out, a month-to-month lease automatically starts. It works both ways -- I can't kick out the tenant without 30 days notice either, even if it's at the end of a year-long lease.

If the tenant moves out without giving me a 30-day-notice, he/she continues to pay until the 30 days are up or the place is rented and occupied again. That normally comes from the deposit, but it could also come from small claims court if the deposit isn't enough to cover everything.

I personally don't always hold the tenant to the 30-day-notice requirement, but that depends a little on how I feel about it. If they just move out, without giving me any notice, I'll hold 'em to the lease agreement. Giving notice is the decent thing to do. Most of my tenants let me know as soon as they know -- sometimes 2 or 3 months ahead of time.

[ScottStielow]

I've always given thirty days lease notice as a courtesy to the landlord anywhere i have lived.
The reason is when moving to another state or town. You have to give background check's,
and a prior landlords Recommendations is usually used on the bases of
renting your new home/apartment. By the new landlord.