Tenant Refuses to sign lease - Landlord Forum thread 337739

Tenant Refuses to sign lease by Brian (Georgia) on July 30, 2015 @11:30

My tenant was given 60 days notice that the rent would increase 1 Aug 2015. I had been checking in with them periodically since notification but they have not been responding. Last I heard about 2 weeks after notification that they were still looking it over. I sent a reminder email 2 days ago and just got an email back that they are not going to sign the lease because they can't afford it. My increase is based on part that the taxes have skyrocketed and I don't want to absorb the extra costs. I want to make sure I am within my rights to ask them officially by email to depart the premises. I know I may take a loss on the rest of the rent because i am going to give them 30-45 days to depart. They waited 2 days before the new rate to say they wouldn't sign and even then as you see I sent a reminder. Andy thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I am wanting to sell the home anyway since the taxes have skyrocketed which means my value has come back.

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Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease by jannie (IL) on July 30, 2015 @12:17	[ Reply ]

You previously asked this similar question - read the answers. Wanting to sell is yes you decided to or no. More than likely these will be hold over tenants which I haven't dealt with or you will have to proceed with eviction. 1. did you send notification via certified mail. 2. I would have (if heard nothing back within a week or so from my tenant) sent another certified receipt request (plus regular mail) that this is the upcoming lease.

Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease by Anonymous on July 30, 2015 @12:49	[ Reply ]

Your notice of change in the terms is not something they have to sign and return to you. If they remain in the property after you give them proper notice of the change, they are subject to the change. If they do not want the change, their option is to give you notice to terminate the rental and move out -- and if they stay 1 minutes beyond the date the change takes place, they owe the rate identified in the change notice. Do not handle your important business by email. Your state law probably requires notices to be sent in a particular manner, such as US Mail, hand-delivery, etc. You should review your state LL/T law to see if you need to give the notices in a particular manner. All this assumes your tenants are M2M. If they are on a current lease, you cannot change anything without their agreement.

Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease

Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease by Andrea (GA) on July 30, 2015 @13:25	[ Reply ]

A lot of this will depend on the way you worded your 60-day notice. Did you indicate you were ending the tenancy if they did not sign the new lease by a certain date? If so, it seems you have met your legal obligation and don't owe them extra time--something that should have been made clear in the wording of the notice. It should have been something to the effect of: accept new lease with different rent terms or vacate by x date. It should have stipulated that if they did not sign the new lease by x date, then you would assume they had chosen to move and that you would be following up with move-out instructions. As for the communication, these are legal notices you're talking about. You should be mailing them certified/return receipt. If they end up being holdover tenants (which it looks like they will) and you have to move to evict, then you will want to have proof of all communication (as in the return receipts). I can only hope that your original 60-day notice was not by email? Not sure where you are in GA, but property taxes have indeed skyrocketed. What your tenants may not realize is so have rents, at least in my area. I used to be in the upper range for my area and size property. I am now slightly below the market average. I chose to raise my rent only slightly to avoid a vacancy. However, at the end of this rental term, I will probably end the tenancy, do some minor cosmetic work, and raise the rent more significantly.

Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease by MrDan (Georgia) on July 30, 2015 @13:40	[ Reply ]

In Georgia a landlord must give a tenant sixty days notice before terminating a tenancy at will, and a tenant must give the landlord thirty days notice before termination of the tenancy. (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-7). A tenancy at will requires the implied or express consent of the landlord, a dispute over the term of the tenancy will not necessarily create a tenancy at will but instead, create a tenancy at sufferance. A tenancy at sufferance does not require 60 days notice and the landlord can proceed with the eviction process. Your options will hinge on your lease and how you conveyed in your 60 day notice that the tenants lease terminated if the tenants failed to enter into a new lease or converted to a month to month rental agreement. The proper way was to give the tenants 60 day notice that the rent would increase or the lease would terminate on 7/31/15. There should have been a time limit placed, where the tenants were required to respond back either to accept the new terms or provide 30 day notice to end lease and if no notice or acceptance was given, the lease would terminate. You should review your lease to insure that it does not state it converts into a month to month upon expiration of the original terms. If it does, a tenancy at will might be created by default. If the lease does terminate and you accept rent, you are creating a month to month rental agreement, requiring 60 day notice from the landlord to end the rental agreement. If the lease does end, you can refuse to accept rent and the tenants can be treated as tenants at sufferance, and the landlord can proceed with the eviction process to remove the tenants. Your lease will govern the proper requirements for all notices. If your lease states that notices must be in writing, then email is not a proper way of notification. A proper way for landlords is to have everything in writing. As a landlord, you would have to prove the tenant actually received the email. You might consider a mutual agreement between you and your tenants to end the tenancy or enter into some alternative rental arrangement. Otherwise the addition cost of an eviction will be part of your problem.

Re: Tenant Refuses to sign lease