That's a tough one!

I think he would have to wait until December 31st to give 30 days notice. If he gives notice before his lease expires, it sounds like it has to be 60 days.

Matt wrote:

Hi Sandy!

1. The tenant is not giving notice for the lease that ends 12/31/14, so he is not governed by the terms of that lease. He is giving notice for the month to month lease that begins 12/1/15, so he must abide by the terms of that lease, which I understand is for a thirty day notice.

2. In my opinion, you cannot (or maybe "should not") give notice on 12/15 to vacate by 1/15 because of the same logic listed above. You would have missed the deadline (60 days, I presume) to terminate the applicable lease that is in force until 12/31. But, on 1/1 you could give the 30 day notice required to vacate on 1/31.

Just curious, do you sometimes end the lease mid-month? All of our leases run through the end of a month, and I'd be curious to hear the pros and cons of ending mid-month.

Thanks!

To answer the question about my lease expiration dates (by the way, this scenario was not my property, but one I oversee), I only end leases mid-month in November on my property because I do not expire leases Thanksgiving through February 28th of the next year. It has always been my opinion that it is hard to rent leases during this time.

However, I do end them on the last Sunday of the month (not the 31st) to give me enough time to get an apartment ready starting on Monday and ending on Friday to reduce loss to vacancy during make-ready and have them ready for a weekend move-in.

This year, however, I had 4 early terminations in December plus one month to month starting in November that is moving December 31st and one early termination for January 25th. I am not having any trouble renting them at all! :)

That's a good question about what would happen on a NTV for 1/15. My thought is that for the 1/31 scenario, the resident could have just as easily submitted their NTV on 1/1, which would be completely valid since they would only need to give a 30 day NTV under a month to month. So in that instance, they were essentially handing the Notice to Vacate in a bit early. But for the second scenario, that wouldn't be the case - you could have someone then give a 30 day Notice to Vacate on 12/2 to leave on 1/1, essentially bypassing the 60 day rule.

So in my very non-legal point of view, I think the initial scenario would be fine, but it would not necessarily be fine for the 2nd one.

Hi Sandy!

1. The tenant is not giving notice for the lease that ends 12/31/14, so he is not governed by the terms of that lease. He is giving notice for the month to month lease that begins 12/1/15, so he must abide by the terms of that lease, which I understand is for a thirty day notice.

2. In my opinion, you cannot (or maybe "should not") give notice on 12/15 to vacate by 1/15 because of the same logic listed above. You would have missed the deadline (60 days, I presume) to terminate the applicable lease that is in force until 12/31. But, on 1/1 you could give the 30 day notice required to vacate on 1/31.

Just curious, do you sometimes end the lease mid-month? All of our leases run through the end of a month, and I'd be curious to hear the pros and cons of ending mid-month.

Thanks!
Matt

So, everyone is in agreement that:

1. Even though the Lease Agreement is in full affect at the time the notice was given, they do not have to comply with 60 days notice because the lease will be a month to month lease at the time they will vacate?

2. Do you agree that if they do not have to comply with the 60 days notice, then we could give them a 30 day notice to vacate on December 15 to vacate on January 15th?

Great feedback you all! I think Matt and others are right on this one - He would have been fine to give the notice on January 1st, so it shouldn't matter if they gave it earlier.