Feeling pressured into signing a new lease/what's my rights?

[Anonymous]

OP, the lease terms are the agreement you entered into. They want to know in advance if they need to find another tenant. Doesn’t that make sense to you? If your lease says you have to give 60 days notice if you’re moving out, your lease cannot now revert to month-to-month. If you wait until day 0 and then move out without prior notice, theoretically they could go after you for whatever financial damages they can prove they incurred by your failure to abide by the terms of the lease. Your lease may or may not include some clause about you having to pay their costs and attorneys fees if you lose, but I don’t know anything about landlord-tenant law where you live (is it DC?).

Tl; dr: tell them when there are 30 days left. Tell them in writing and get them to respond in writing acknowledging what you told them. They may be pissed and not continue your lease, even if you want to stay, because you violated the 60-day notice agreement, but if it’s a large corporation they’ll probably be more lenient if you wind up staying.

[Anonymous]

Decide whether you are staying or going before you’re 60 days out from the end of your lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What state law are you referring to? Maryland and Virginia require 60 days notice. If you don’t notify them that you plan to stay, expect a nonrenewal notice just prior to 60 days.

I have no idea about DC. They are the Wild West.

Virginia is 30 days notice. I don't know about DC or MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, the lease terms are the agreement you entered into. They want to know in advance if they need to find another tenant. Doesn’t that make sense to you? If your lease says you have to give 60 days notice if you’re moving out, your lease cannot now revert to month-to-month. If you wait until day 0 and then move out without prior notice, theoretically they could go after you for whatever financial damages they can prove they incurred by your failure to abide by the terms of the lease. Your lease may or may not include some clause about you having to pay their costs and attorneys fees if you lose, but I don’t know anything about landlord-tenant law where you live (is it DC?).

Tl; dr: tell them when there are 30 days left. Tell them in writing and get them to respond in writing acknowledging what you told them. They may be pissed and not continue your lease, even if you want to stay, because you violated the 60-day notice agreement, but if it’s a large corporation they’ll probably be more lenient if you wind up staying.

You write two paragraphs of advice, but in the middle concede that you don't know anything about the applicable landlord-tenant law. Fantastic.

OP, don't take the above "advice" as gospel - it may be correct, some of it may be correct, or it may be completely wrong. There's no way to tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the lease you signed - it should address this.

Have you seen an apartment lease recently? No this is often not covered. Furthermore they're often written in a way a average person can't dicern without year one of law school.

Every lease I ever signed in the DMV addressed this. It's the most basic of terms. OP's inability to read what she signed isn't something to blame the landlord on. However, we are all just speculating without knowing what the terms of her lease are.

OP. if you don't want to move, why would you not sign a new lease?

Yeah, the lease controls how much notice is required. It is becoming more common for apartments to require 60 days of notice e to vacate. I've had this at my last two apartments Both times I essentially had to eat an extra month of rent because I needed to hop on a new available apartment I wanted before it was leased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello,
Apartment renter from a large national corporation (not a personal condo owner) who's feeling very much pressured into signing a new lease right now 90 days before my lease term is up. They're hounding me but I don't know that I want to stay, however finding places is very hard right now. They said I have to give them 60 days notice to vacate, however state law says I only have to give 30 days notice to vacate. They are saying if I don't sign right now it will revert to month to month at a ridiculous $$$$ amount. How can an "expired" lease "revert" to anything? What happens if I give them the keys and everything back on the last day of my lease? How can anything revert if nothing is signed? Also, if I gave the 60 days or 30 days notice and can't find a place I will be homeless I guess. Any information appreciated.

Did you put down a security deposit? I imagine (imagine because I'm not reading your lease terms), that if you fail to give notice and just move out they may have the right to keep your deposit as a month's rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello,
Apartment renter from a large national corporation (not a personal condo owner) who's feeling very much pressured into signing a new lease right now 90 days before my lease term is up. They're hounding me but I don't know that I want to stay, however finding places is very hard right now. They said I have to give them 60 days notice to vacate, however state law says I only have to give 30 days notice to vacate. They are saying if I don't sign right now it will revert to month to month at a ridiculous $$$$ amount. How can an "expired" lease "revert" to anything? What happens if I give them the keys and everything back on the last day of my lease? How can anything revert if nothing is signed? Also, if I gave the 60 days or 30 days notice and can't find a place I will be homeless I guess. Any information appreciated.

What they mean is if you don’t give notice to vacate, your lease will automatically renew on a month-to-month basis, at the higher rate. Landlords usually offer a good discount for signing longer leases, because turnover is expensive. Usually even if you are month-to-month, you still need to give notice as outlined in the terms of the lease.

But, in my experience, winter is a slow time of year for people to move. So unless your apartment is a really hot commodity, if you give them notice, and decide a week later that you want to stay put, odds are your unit won’t be rented yet. Also, if you don’t choose a new lease now, and therefore your lease is month-to-month, and you decide next month that you want to stay another year, odds are the discounts will still be available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What state law are you referring to? Maryland and Virginia require 60 days notice. If you don’t notify them that you plan to stay, expect a nonrenewal notice just prior to 60 days.

I have no idea about DC. They are the Wild West.

Virginia is 30 days notice. I don't know about DC or MD.

Only in month-to-month arrangements. OP didn’t mention a month-to-month lease.