Submitted by littlemermaid on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 13:33
Hi -- My lease ended August 15th and I did not sign a renewal because I intended to move. I have now informed the landlord that I will be ending my lease September 4th and they are insisting that I pay September rent because I was considered a 'tenant-at-will' once I continued living in the apartment after the lease expired. There is absolutely nothing stated about this in the lease I signed last year. The only thing about paying rent for time not lived in the apartment is if I were to break my lease.
They are also stating that my oral statement to a staff member 3 weeks ago that I would be moving out during the first two weeks of september was not valid because it was not written.
Editor's Response
The landlord is correct. Once the lease expired and you remained in the unit, you became a tenant at will with a month to month agreement (based on how often you pay rent). At that point you need to give a proper, written 30 day's notice before you can move out. Similarly, after you became a tenant at will, if the landlord wanted you out, he or she would have had to give you thirty day's notice before evicting you.