I need some advice on a situation with my landlord. I’m renting a house, and I moved in in late June. I just got a letter from my landlord telling me that I need to let them know by November 4 if I want to renew my lease for next year. My lease says that I need to let them know at least two months before the end of the lease if I want to end the lease, or at the end of the lease period, the lease will convert to month-to-month. I’m not sure where I stand legally. I don’t want to move out right at the end of my lease, but I don’t want to sign up for another year. I was planning on going month-to-month after the lease is up, and I’m not happy that they’re trying to change the rules on me now. I’d appreciate any advice on what to do about this.
Nothing you say now is going to be binding, is it? I’d just write back “I’m not entirely sure of my plans in seven months, but I’m probably going to stay here.” Then, if you change your mind you can sign a lease (or not) by next April.
Sounds like the landlord won’t be interested in defaulting to a month-to-month lease though. I’d generally advise you to plan ahead. Really, the worst case scenario is that the landlord asks you to sign a lease or move out sixty days before your current lease ends. That’s plenty of time to find a new place as long as you aren’t blindsided.
Perhaps if you don’t want to move immediately and you don’t want to sign another one-year lease, you can hammer out some intermediate agreement. Six month lease? Month-to-month lease where you both agree to give sixty days notice to terminate?
Are you certain that you do want to move out before the next year is up? Do you have an idea of your time frame?
I would take the longest period you can absolutely commit to, and respond with that. He may need to sell, or even be flirting with allowing it to go to foreclosure. The fact that he’s asking so formally for your input may indicate that he needs to certify to someone that he’s got a renter through “X” date. You will only be protected until the date you give him. The new owner can then do what they like with the property outside the disclosed period.
I’d say a phone call is in order, to ask the specifics around what arrangements he is considering.
If it were me, I would ring my landlord and say ‘I’ve received your letter but am a bit surprised as the lease states I don’t need to confirm renewal until 2 months before the end of this current lease. Is there any reason why you’re asking me to confirm now?’
We had a similar situation recently, although the landlord approached it better than yours. Our landlord owns a lot of properties and wanted to free up some cash. He wanted to know if we were planning to stay renting for a while, or whether we were likely to leave at the end of our lease. If we were planning on leaving at the end of the lease, he planned to put the house on the market. If not, then he planned to put a different rental house on the market. As we said we were planning on staying put for now, he put the other rental house up for sale.
[I assume the lease runs through June of next year?]
And I doubt that the lease says that they have to renew the lease (even if you give notice before two months from the end), so they’re not taking any rights away from you by asking now.
On the other hand, it is different from what you expected, and apparently different from what they expected or the lease would be different, so I agree: Call them up and find out what’s going on.
^ This…what Quercus said.
You can ignore them, and then decide at the end of April next year and notify them that you intend to exercise your option to renew for another year. You are within your rights of your lease.
If you decide to go month to month and not renew your annual lease, they can terminate your lease with a 30 day notice, at the end of your current one year lease period. Which I assume they would do, if they had another potential tenant that was willing to sign a year lease.
You both have reciprocal rights of termination. What’s the concern?
I’ve never experienced anything quite like this, but others have offered up some possible explanations above. However, nothing about it strikes me as illegal on its face (however, IANAL).
I believe that it would be legal for the landlord to notify you on April 30 of next year that he wished to terminate your tenancy effective June 30; that’s sixty-one days’ notice. I believe that he could exercise this option for any reason or no reason (outside of a small number of specifically-enumerated illegal reasons relating to discrimination).
That sixty-day* notice requirement is a minimum, yes? There’s nothing illegal about giving you more notice, I would think - like telling you on November 5 that he wishes to terminate your tenancy effective the next June 30. (Or he could simply say, “I’ll be formally giving you sixty days’ notice at the end of April; plan accordingly.”) Either of those options would be kinder to you than holding his tongue and springing it on you next April.
Why would he do that? If he didn’t like the answer you gave him on November 4, I guess. 
But I don’t think that’s illegal. If he wants you out on June 30, he can make that happen as long as he makes up his mind and properly communicates that to you before the end of April. Longer notice just gives you more warning of the inevitable.
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- Maybe they need 60, maybe they need 30; either way, just adjust the dates accordingly and the gist of the story does not change.
Thanks for all the responses. I should have mentioned that I live in the US (North Carolina). I do plan to talk to the landlord, but I want to know what my legal rights are before I do that, and right now that’s not so clear.
If I don’t renew my lease by November 4, the landlord will start advertising the property and rent it to someone else, so it’s not a foreclosure situation. The problem is that I was planning to wait until spring to decide if I want to stay longer (for many reasons which are too complicated to explain right now). I should have until April 2014 to decide if I want to renew the lease, and I’m a bit resentful that I have to make that decision now. This is a lot different from them deciding that they don’t want to renew my lease, which I’m sure they have the right to do. There’s not even any rush for them to re-lease the property, because rentals in this area go quickly.