Landlord threatening not to renew their rental license?

[Anonymous]

Our landlord has threatened not to renew her rental license. Wouldn’t this do more damage to her than to us? I am just so confused by this tactic. We have a feeling our landlord is trying to force us out of our lease early.

[Anonymous]

Where are you located? When does your lease end? What is the context surrounding you learning this information?

[Anonymous]

Start looking for a new place to live so you have something in place at the end of your current lease. You can't compel her to renew her rental lease.

[Anonymous]

Landlords can decline to continue renting by allowing a rental license to expire. They are not indentured servants. They should give you appropriate notice.

What conflict of any kind have you had with them, as renters? What small or big things might they be unhappy about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Landlords can decline to continue renting by allowing a rental license to expire. They are not indentured servants. They should give you appropriate notice.

What conflict of any kind have you had with them, as renters? What small or big things might they be unhappy about?

In certain areas, an expired rental lease defaults to a month to month

[Anonymous]

When does your lease expire? If the business license expires only a month or two before your lease, she may just be saying that she isn’t going to pay another years’ fees for that time. There really isn’t any enforcement around these licenses, so it won’t matter from her end. I would make a plan for when your lease expires for a new place to live.

[Anonymous]

If you are in DC you would still be entitled to stay month to month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Landlords can decline to continue renting by allowing a rental license to expire. They are not indentured servants. They should give you appropriate notice.

What conflict of any kind have you had with them, as renters? What small or big things might they be unhappy about?

In certain areas, an expired rental lease defaults to a month to month

Fair enough. I am happy to rephrase: landlords are not required to remain landlords indefinitely. There are processes in place for them to back out of the game, given due notice to renters and so forth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are in DC you would still be entitled to stay month to month

"Entitled?" Forever? As in, the landlord can never stop renting, once they start?

[Anonymous]

This totally depends on where you live. In DC it is very hard to stop being a landlord if your tenants want to stay.

[Anonymous]

It used to be that a landlord could kick a tenant out if they were having a relative move into the unit. Not sure if that's still the case.

[Anonymous]

Landlord here. Are you in DC, MD or VA?

In MD, that's not a way to end the lease. In the lease (even if it's not written), it's assumed the landlord will comply with all licensing requirements. In fact, if they try to file against you in landlord-tenant court, one of the items on the filing form is license number -- so if it even makes it to court, the judge will likely dismiss it based on that.

Your lease ends based on what's written in the lease, and has nothing to do with teh license being invalid or expired. If it _is_ expired, inform the licensing agency or tenants rights and they will go after the landlord. Even better if you have their threat in writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It used to be that a landlord could kick a tenant out if they were having a relative move into the unit. Not sure if that's still the case.

Landlord here. Yes, but usually that applies to _after_ the lease ends when month-to-month comes in to play. So the landlord can say they wont' renew at the end of the lease, and that's a legit reason for non-renewal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This totally depends on where you live. In DC it is very hard to stop being a landlord if your tenants want to stay.

I moved back in to my house. Twice. You won't hold me and my property hostage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It used to be that a landlord could kick a tenant out if they were having a relative move into the unit. Not sure if that's still the case.

Landlord here. Yes, but usually that applies to _after_ the lease ends when month-to-month comes in to play. So the landlord can say they wont' renew at the end of the lease, and that's a legit reason for non-renewal.

DP. OP has provided basically zero information about what’s going on, so we no clue what the context is. Usually this tactic means the facts are unfavorable to the OP.