My house’s rental period is July 1 - June 30. My landlord requests that I renew my lease or let him rent the house to other people, in the next period, by November 15. So, I have my copy of next year’s lease here. He will be raising the rent by $50 a month. Along with this lease is a note asking that when I return the lease, I include a check for $100, which will bring my deposit up to the new rent amount–AND PAY FOR THE INCREASE IN LAST MONTH’S RENT.
Um… my current lease says that I rent the house from July 1 - June 30 for a certain amount per month. Now he wants $50 more per month. Can he do that? I cannot find any clause in the lease that says “landlord may play havoc with rent at will.”
Never mind. I just figure out that by “last month’s rent” he means the addendum to my deposit–he doesn’t mean “the month you most recently paid rent for.”
I’d suggest you try searching online for your state’s/city’s landlord/tenant laws. Often landlords will draft leases/rental agreements that are not in compliance w/ the local laws. This is not usually intentional, but they may get the inf. from a book, or on some web site and not think to check local laws.