Re: Tenant vacates without proper notice

Re: Tenant vacates without proper notice by Alison Passerello on February 1, 2002 @16:31

Hi Nikki, You are right. Your tenant is wrong. The lease stated 60 days. (The minimum requirement by state law applies in the absence of a written lease term) As long as you have your paperwork in order, you should have no problem. I'd suggest having any receipts for cleaning and repairs handy as well as any advertising costs. Alison Nikki Rodgers on 2/1/102 10:11 AM said: >>We recently purchased a duplex home, in which our family intended upon occupying on both sides. At the time of purchase, there were exisiting tenants on eac side. The woman on the left side was on a month to month tenancy, after her original year lease had expired. Per the lease, she was then able to rent on a month to month basis, until either the landlord or herself gave 60 days notice to vacate, upon which the lease would then terminate. >> >> >> >>She chose to move out when she found out the property was in the process of being sold. She gave notive on November 27th, with the intent of vacate as of December 31st. She hand delivered her notice to us, however closing had not taken place at that point, therefore we were not yet her landlords. We notified the real estate agent handling the sale, who then notified the previous landlord. He did call this tenant, and informed her that her intent to vacate at the end of December was not a correct period of notice, and that she would be responsible for January rent. We also sent her a letter after the closing informing her of the same. She did not officially respond. >> >> >> >>She moved out December 28th, did not attempt to clean the apartment in any way, and had one of her children drop off her keys. She then mailed a letter telling us that the sale of the property invalidated her lease (despite the fact that nowhere in the lease does it indicate a sale voids or nullifies the agreement), therefore she was not responsible for any further rent or utility payments. She demanded her security deposit in full. >> >> >> >>We sent her a security deposit letter within the 21 day required period, informing her that we withheld the full amount of January rent due to her improper notice, as well as charged her further for January utilities (the lease states that all utilities are to be paid up to the end of the proper notice period) and charges for the cleaning of the apartment. >> >> >> >>She is now taking us to small claims court. Her complaints are that the Wisconsin State Statutes only require month to month tenancies to give 30 days notice and she also continues to claim that the sale of the property meant that she had no lease with us and is not required to honor provisions of the previous lease. >> >> >> >>The Wisconsin Statute actually states that month to month tenants must give at least 28 days notice, but does not specify whether a lease agreement overrules this. My understanding of lease agreements from my own experience is that if the lease states a specific notice period, that must be honored or the tenant is liable for rent during the remaining period of proper notice. >> >> >> >>We purchased this property with no intention to rerent either side. We are also in a lease agreement currently, which does not end until March. Therefore, we lost rental income for January as we could not rerent the property for two months. Also, we did not attempt to, as the previous owner and the real estate agents assured us that the 60 day notice period was valid, and that if the tenant did not pay rent for January, we could withhold her security. >> >> >> >>Any help, suggestions or advice would be appreciated before we head into court on February 12th! >> >> >>

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