Re: 2 year leases - Landlord Forum thread

Re: 2 year leases by Anonymous on February 8, 2010 @19:42

"You can't terminate a lease early just because you want to."
Yes that is normally true, but it depends what your lease says, doesn't it?

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Re: 2 year leases by Anonymous on February 9, 2010 @09:18

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No it doesn't. That's not the legal way a lease works. A lease allow a tenant to stay without fear of termination through the end of it as long as he follows the rules and clauses of the lease. You may not terminate just because you feel like it. If you want to be able to terminate at will, you need to use a month to month agreement. No judge would ever allow the LL the unilateral right to terminate. If you write that in your lease, a judge would allow the tenant the same right to terminate as you. So if your lease says that you can terminate with 60 days notice, the tenant automatically gains that same right and you just turned your lease into a m2m agreement. You cannot have rights to terminate that the tenant does not. I repeat, a lease cannot work that way legally.

Re: 2 year leases by Anonymous on February 9, 2010 @10:15

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Maybe maybe not.

I've been able to terminate at least 7 leases with 60 days notice.

And who says you have to end up in court?

Oh, and I did a couple of times when the deposit was the issue. My settlement statement saved the day.
The notice was never an issue.

Maybe you are right if the tenant sues you only over the "unilateral right to terminate", but it has been a handy clause for me.

Re: 2 year leases by Anonymous on February 9, 2010 @19:10

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One of these days you are not going to be able to intimidate a tenant into leaving like this. They are going to sue you for attempting to terminate them. Or they will try to terminate the same way and will sue you for keeping a deposit for this. When they do, it's going to cost you lots of money. 3x the deposit for wrongful withholding of the deposit. This is not legal. I suggest you stop this practice before you come to regret it.

Re: 2 year leases