When is it safe to notify landlord?

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2015

We have been renting for 3 years. Last October we went to a 6 month lease. It was scheduled to renew in April but they sent the wrong lease (12 mo not 6). Although we notified them it was incorrect, we still haven't received the updated lease. Now, we are set to close July 24. When is it safe to give notice? I am afraid if I send them a letter and the sellers back out, we will be homeless lol Should I just give our notice for July 31 contingent upon the close of our house?

Revelate · ‎06-14-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
We have been renting for 3 years. Last October we went to a 6 month lease. It was scheduled to renew in April but they sent the wrong lease (12 mo not 6). Although we notified them it was incorrect, we still haven't received the updated lease. Now, we are set to close July 24. When is it safe to give notice? I am afraid if I send them a letter and the sellers back out, we will be homeless lol Should I just give our notice for July 31 contingent upon the close of our house?

I don't have a good answer for this one either: I've been month to month with 30 days notice for the past 9ish years and I'm awfully tempted to wait till I get a Clear to Close before turning in notice. Sellers have mostly met their side of the deal (other than going through our list of credits / requests that came out of the inspection process... $2800 vs the mortgage size, admittedly I'm probably not going to let the deal fall apart over that even if I get the distinct impression I'm being nickle and dimed in several hundred dollar increments throughout this process).

I haven't trashed the place in the 10 years I've been here and I'm close with the manager so I probably have some leeway, but not sure I could really do a contingent offer but it can't hurt to ask.

I think the way most folks solve it is through a short-term combination of living quarters and a storage bin, but depending where you are that is probably more than rent; once you've gotten through underwriting if there's anything else on the market you are remotely interested in you can start pitching offers with much tighter timeframes which probably makes this whole thing tremendously easier as the seller side paperwork isn't too difficult to get through seemingly. My thinking anyway.

Interested in other people's responses!

ETA: just got a new neighbor too after 10 years, noisy . Ah well, short term problem haha!

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2015

You bring up some great poiints. I will look into the storage pods for a worst case scenario. Our biggest issue is we are moving back to the Nashville area which is 3 hours away. The owner of our rental uses a property manager. They aren't easy to work with and I expect them to keep our deposit ($1,000). I don't want to have to pay any more than that. I don't know if we should contact the owner or if he signed a contract with the property manager too. Blah! Lol

coterotie · ‎06-14-2015

Most states the law reads that if the lease ends without a new lease starting, then the lease converts to month to month. Now your specific lease language should also address this as well as give you the notice requirements. Read it. Understand it.

So given this scenario, and the fact that moving is a pain in the butt and always takes longer than it should. What I would do is if the lease requires 30 day notice, I would give them notice the day you get the clear to close, say around July 15. You will still be on the hook for August likely but you would have clearly fulfilled your contract. Document everything and you will likely get your deposit back.

If you get the clear to close say tomorrow, but still want to close on the 24th. Give notice immediately and intend to vacate prior to August 1st. Slightly more of a gamble, but if the deal falls through, negotiate with the landlord to stay month to month. They will likely prefer that to trying to rent it quickly.

StartingOver10 · ‎06-14-2015

Excellent advice from Coterotie above. Don't box yourself in by providing notice prior to your CTC at a minimum. Some people wait until closing to actually provide notice. It will relieve your stress if you have not provided notice prior to your closing. The most you have to lose is 30 days (usually) and the first month payment is skipped in a purchase so you are in good shape anyway.

I had a customer recently that provided notice prior to the ctc (against my advice) and the pressure was enormous - and his lender (not one I have ever used) closed very, very late - like two weeks late. It isn't worth the added stress to have to move temporarily if your notice is too early.

Note: if you are current on your lease and your property is delivered according to your lease terms back to the landlord, the property management co can't just willy nilly keep your deposit. Make sure you have photos as you have left it in the walk through. Make sure you turn in your keys on time. Check your state's statutes in addition to your lease to see what the landlord is required to do to return your deposit. There are penalties if they don't comply.

Anonymous · ‎06-15-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
We have been renting for 3 years. Last October we went to a 6 month lease. It was scheduled to renew in April but they sent the wrong lease (12 mo not 6). Although we notified them it was incorrect, we still haven't received the updated lease. Now, we are set to close July 24. When is it safe to give notice? I am afraid if I send them a letter and the sellers back out, we will be homeless lol Should I just give our notice for July 31 contingent upon the close of our house?

As long as you did not sign the incorrect 12 month lease in April, the landlord/tenant laws in most states will place you on a month-to-month lease as of April, with the terms of your original lease still in place. You are still required to give your landlord 30 days notice to vacate (unless your old lease states something different). Keep in mind that if your lease did indeed convert to a month-to-month the landlord can also give YOU 30 days notice to vacate. If you did sign the 12 month lease in April you are on the hook until April 2016. In that case, not only can they keep your security deposit they can sue you to pay the balance of your lease until April 2016 or until they rent to another tenant, whichever is sooner.

I waited until the day after I closed, then put in my notice to vacate in 30 days. My property management company is pretty unforgiving and once you give notice they generally will not allow you to "take it back".

Anonymous · ‎06-15-2015

DO NOT give your notice, wait until you're fully closed. My wife wanted to do this and give notice so that we can get more of our deposit back but i said no! Anything can happend during the process, and if you give your notice and don't close, you'll be on the street. We did close with no problems but didn't want to take a chance.

CS800 · ‎06-15-2015

Waiting for CTC from your lender might put you under a 30 day notice and if your lanlord uses a property management company, they might charge you for improper notice to vacate (a fee that is)

Explain the situation to the company and hope they understand you. I'm sure they must have dealt with a similar situation before.

Then it might be up to the landlord's discretion.

frugalQ · ‎06-15-2015

you can give your 30 day notice once you get the ctc.....that way you have a lot of time to actually move. we closed april 9th, but didn't have to be out until april 30th. we were able to take our time getting everything moved over to new house.

Revelate · ‎06-15-2015

@frugalQ wrote:
you can give your 30 day notice once you get the ctc.....that way you have a lot of time to actually move. we closed april 9th, but didn't have to be out until april 30th. we were able to take our time getting everything moved over to new house.

Yeah in thinking about it, if I'm basically writing off some of the small expenses that the seller should take care of but likely isn't, then losing part of a current month's rent isn't worth worrying about either. Short term there's better uses for the money (hello furniture I actually am not embarrased by) but over the course of even 7+ years which I comfortably expect this mortgage to run, it's irrelevant to my overall financial picture.

I'm going to wait to see when I get a CTC vs. when the closing date actually is and make the call there. I'm already going through my life and throwing out junk and identifying stuff which I'll give away for free, or I may try to sell some that's solid like the counter microwave which is top notch from a year ago, dump it for 1/3 of what I paid for it or whatever.