I live in a university town although I’m not a student (just a yuppy engineer working in a uni spinoff company). My lease expires at the end of this month, and the apt management says they don’t offer a 12 month lease for me. Just one for 6 months just in time to expire at the start of school year crunch time (presumably to jack up the price). Can they legally refuse me a 12 month lease? I’ve been here 3 years, although the only thing that changed is the ownership of the complex. Can I play hardball with them to curry some better pricing, or something, or what do you guys recommend?
I’m pretty sure they can offer you a six-month lease, if that’s what they want. It’s up to you whether or not you accept it.
Thing is, right now there are some ways that you are in the driver’s seat. Sure, if they boot you out in August, they can probably get more for the place. But if you tell them to go screw themselves, and leave now, they might have a hard time finding someone to take the place in the middle of winter. March isn’t exactly a big moving month, especially in college towns. Ask the landlord if he’s willing to risk losing a few months’ rent altogether in order to jack up the price a bit in August.
Of course, if you make this threat, you need to be prepared to follow through, and move out. Are there many other places available in your town right now?
Legally, a landlord can pretty much do whatever they want in their lease regarding term of stay. They can make it month to month, three months at a time, or six months (like yours) or longer.
Your landlord is simply a good business person. Why wouldn’t they want more money when the market allows for it? Here in Vegas, you can rent hotel rooms for practically nothing during slow mid-week times, but come the busy weekends, or really, really busy convention times, those same rooms go for top dollar. Same in NYC or Paris or any city/area that has tourist flux and on/off seasons. Also, most university towns rent rooms/apartments for cheap during school breaks - so just because you have a great deal now doesn’t mean you should be able to have that year round.
If you really like the place, do some research on how much similar places rent for during the school year. Calculate a fair price for that time and add it to the cheaper price for this time and see if you can cut a long-term deal. If it costs $500 month now, but normally goes for $1000 month when school is in session, see if you can offer a long term lease for $750. Worth a shot, and is only fair to the landlord.
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But the fluctuations are nothing like this great in most university towns; it’s more likely to be a hundred or two hundred dollars a month difference.
Also, most university town landlords recognize that there is some benefit to having a stable, long-term tenant rather than treating your place like a vacation rental and having to advertise and show it two or three times a year, with the risk that it sits empty for months at a time. If you refuse to give someone an $800/mo lease now because you’re hoping to get $900/mo in August, and the place is then empty for two months, you’ve already lost most than a year’s worth of the extra rent you were hoping to get.
And none of this really has anything to do with “fair.” It’s about market value. If the price that the landlord wants to get for the place is in the ballpark of market value, the OP is probably out of luck. But if the price the landlord is asking is more than market value, the OP should just leave and find a new place.
In the OP’s shoes, i would walk now if the landlord wouldn’t give me a one-year lease, rather than face the prospect of having to find a new place in August when all the students flood into town.
When I was at college, the leases in the area all ran for 1 year, and started at the beginning of the school year. Maybe your landlord just wants to get in synch with the rest of the rental properties in the area.
Have you considered asking for a 1.5 year lease, if you want to stay that long? That would let the landlord get in synch with the school year, and get you a longer lease. Could be win-win.