Landlords...Two Questions

[readyin07]

We're going to ask our lawyer how to best handle this, but I wanted some input.

1. Our tenants signed a 12 month lease with us effective 2/24/15. They paid first, last and security. So if they are not going to renew, their last payment would be in December because their January-February payment would be covered in the last month's rent they paid. 

If they renew, My assumption would be that then they would pay that January-February payment b/c they are staying...the last month's rent they paid would roll over until they leave the house. Our lease allows for an extension. Pretty simple.

DH disagrees and said that should technically be the "free" month of the lease since it's a one year lease. If they renew their lease and pay the January-February then that's technically them paying the last month of the next year's lease. I mean, it works out to the same thing. It's just a matter of semantics, right? They're still paying January-February and they're still getting the last month they're in the house free, whether that is next year or 5 years from now.  We don't have to give them that month free and then assume that the last month of their lease they will pay us. 

2. Our lease doesn't specifically give a renewal notification period beyond it being covered by our state statutes which say "Where the tenancy is from year to year, by giving not less than 3 months’ notice prior to the end of any annual period;" If their lease is up 2/24, that was basically two days ago. We haven't heard about their intention to renew, but given the statute it is acceptable at this point to ask them their intentions, right? We do assume they'll renew b/c they just last month changed their check address  

Also neither our lease or the state statute seem to give any penalty for a failure to notify. Is that something we should include in the future? What is a standard penalty? Honestly, if they notified us in a reasonable time frame we would be fine with it, but if they gave us like a week's notice or something ridiculous I want o make sure we are covered.

[penguingrrl]

I assume that the "last month's rent" they gave with first and security is for the last month they live in your unit, whenever that is. So if they stay 3 years it's the last month they ever stay, not the last month of the first lease.

And I would contact them now about renewing their lease for another year. That will open the door for them to sign or to say they don't plan to. But if they ordered checks they're likely planning to stay a while lol! I haven't ordered checks in at least three addresses!

[jinkies]

When I rented, the last-month payment applied to my actual last month in the apartment, not the end of the first year.

Every lease I had requested at least 30 days notice if you were not renewing. 3 months seems like a lot of notice for a renter.

[mrsukyankee]

You apply the last month's rent to their last month of living there - it covers you and the renter...you, in case they want to skip out early, them because they can save that last month rent and put it toward a new deposit for their new place. win-win

I would definitely get in touch. In London, you go to a month-by-month contract after a year, so you have to give one month's notice or you lose your deposit/last month rent. It might be worth talking to them about what you expect for lead time for giving notice.

[readyin07]

Nov 26, 2015 9:44:43 GMT -5 jinkies said:

When I rented, the last-month payment applied to my actual last month in the apartment, not the end of the first year.

Every lease I had requested at least 30 days notice if you were not renewing. 3 months seems like a lot of notice for a renter.

I agree that that seems ridiculous. I thought 30-45 days was reasonable. We would never penalize someone for that kind of notice regardless of what the statues say. We are in South Florida and "season" is Jan, Feb, March so we definitely would like as much notice as possible so we could have cleaning people and whatnot at the ready and get it back on the market during that timeframe.