Lease Agreement Help Needed! (apartment, security deposit, renewing, house)

[sammyb10]

So in August 2011, my 2 roommates and i rented an apartment in Jenkintown. About 5 months later, our landlord sold the property and we were given a new landlord. In our lease, it stated that under that circumstance we were supposed to receive written notification from the old landlord letting us know that our security deposit would be transferred to the new landlord as well as giving us their contact details. Besides getting a voice-mail with the new landlord's phone number and address, no notification was given.

In the beginning of September, we emailed our current landlord about needing a new lease to sign for the coming year as we were staying in the apartment. She said no new lease would be needed and that we could just follow the old one except she was going to charge an additional $50 a month, rent out our garage, and we would do yard work. She also stated that the term of this one would be for a year and 60 days prior to leaving, we need to give written notice. We replied via email stating that this was fine.

In the meantime, this very old house has caused a lot of issues. The ceilings look as though they may drop at any moment from previous water damage (which was noted to the landlord), our main door has 2 glass window panes missing (again noted to the landlord), our upstairs lights and outlets stopped working, one of the outlets blew causing our tv and microwave to short circuit, and now another 2 outlets don't work (both of which were also noted to the landlord). Now this landlord is very scatter brained (once sent us a letter saying we were overdue by rent and penalties would be collected, but in reality that letter was meant for a completely different property), but she has been very nice and did pay for the electrician to rewire the upstairs so we could have lights again.

However, we just got a really great offer for a house in an area that we have been trying to get into. The rent is perfect, the house is much nicer, and the commute is shorter for all of us. We would be able to move in there in mid January, if we can get out of this "agreement."

Our main question is, since we have no physical lease with signatures under this landlord, can she hold us liable for the remaining months of rent in our lease before she gets a new tenant? From my reading, it sounds as though we are technically under a month to month lease ever since the original landlord failed to provide us with the proper notifications regarding the change in ownership (that may be a stretch, but then since we have no real lease i would assume we've been under a month to month since September).

Help!

[High_Plains_Retired]

Knowing which state you are located in would be helpful.

I would say that you should check your old lease and see if there is a continuation clause in it. In other words, does the old contract "continue in force" if no one objects? I think the fact that the landlord has verbally declared a new lease is not required will have to be addressed by state-specific property codes. My guess is that, in any state, she should have given you something in writing to be able to enforce a continuation without something in the old lease contract.

[chet everett]

It sounds like the landlord ASSUMES you are bound by a "verbal agreement" and you kind of agree to that. Part of that agreement seems to include a term of one year PLUS a requirement to notify the landlord 60 days prior to the expiration of that term that you won't be renewing. Kind of a lot of assumptions...

From a practical standpoint if you just tell landlord something like "in the absence of a written lease we have been treating this as a month-to-month lease" that may or may not be consistent with your local / state laws. If it turns out that landlord tries to file suit against you for the "broken lease" / take you to court the local / state laws will be rather important...

Written leases protect BOTH the landlord and tenant. With a nice detailed lease every body knows what the procedure is for any situation. Without one everything gets very dicey and it gets costly to hire lawyers after the fact...

[sammyb10]

Forgot to mention, this is for Pennsylvania. On our lease, the continuation clause states that after the year's term the lease will become a Month to Month agreement. Which is why even though, we had that email conversation, I would assume that a situation such as this would fall under the Month to Month regulations as we have no written, signed, detailed lease.

I'm not as worried about the security deposit as I am the additional rent payments that may be due (if this is considered a valid lease) after we move until she gets a new tenant.

I wish we would have fought for a written lease, she's just so hard to get a hold of that I didn't feel like pushing it.

[sammyb10]

PA law does validate verbal agreements; however, it doesn't say anything about how to validate changes.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by sammyb10

Forgot to mention, this is for Pennsylvania. On our lease, the continuation clause states that after the year's term the lease will become a Month to Month agreement. Which is why even though, we had that email conversation, I would assume that a situation such as this would fall under the Month to Month regulations as we have no written, signed, detailed lease.

I'm not as worried about the security deposit as I am the additional rent payments that may be due (if this is considered a valid lease) after we move until she gets a new tenant.

I wish we would have fought for a written lease, she's just so hard to get a hold of that I didn't feel like pushing it.

If you had fought for a written lease you would be bound for an additional year. Since that did not happen it sounds like you are on a month-to-month lease and you can leave contintent upon the proper notice describe in the original lease.

It would be a good idea to talk to an attorney about this just to make sure you have covered all of the bases.

[High_Plains_Retired]

I agree with CptnRn in that it sounds like you are under a month-to-month lease. The email discussion could however raise it's ugly head in court if your landlord thinks otherwise. A short consultation with a real estate lawyer may be wise.