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What is the max time for a residential lease? - Landlord Forum thread 359511

What is the max time for a residential lease? by Mike on July 20, 2019 @00:54

                              
We have a property in California (Santa Clara County) that we are going to be leasing out to family at below market value (permanent resident instead of investment home). For some internal family reasons, longer term lease is actually better for all parties involved. We're having trouble identifying if there's an actual length cap on this.

So what is the maximum time period we can assign this? We have heard:

-That while there is no lease limit to commercial properties, a maximum lease limit for residential in three years in California.

-That contract parameters are up to landlord discretion as long as tenant agrees to it, even if it says something like "renews in perpetuity until mutual dissolution"

-That there is no maximum cap in California but you can only set years, not open ended.

Any insight? We'll have a lawyer draft the contract but as they are expensive on an hourly basis, we'd like to go in with an educated POV first. Thanks!
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Re: What is the max time for a residential lease? by Garry on July 20, 2019 @12:54 [ Reply ]
A landlord should NEVER sign a lease longer than 1 year, no matter HOW advantageous it seems at the time. If everything is "hunkydory" at the end of each year, both parties can always sign a new lease for another year. And you can keep doing so, for the next 20 years, if you like. Have the lawyer make out a lease with spaces where you fill in the blanks each year with all the personal information of both parties, and the property itself. Make 10 copies of the "blank" lease, (before you fill in any spaces), and pull one out each year for both parties to fill in their info, and then resign the new lease. Family/friends circumstances can change at any time, and no one should be tied down to a long-term lease.

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