I don't want to renew the lease - Landlord Forum thread 360465

I don't want to renew the lease by Peggy on May 7, 2020 @14:53

I have sent my tenant a one month notice last month for him to move out on 5/20 since his lease is due on 5/20. Now, he has refused to move out because of the Covid19-pandemic. He told me it is not legal to send him a one month notice for him to move out. He said he has right to stay in the house. Is he correct? I am planing to sell the house and he told me I can not do anything like cleaning and repair in the house when he is in there. Oh my gosh, seems he is the house owner. How to solve this problem? He said I need to talk to his lawyer. Is it right?

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Re: I don't want to renew the lease by Garry on May 7, 2020 @21:06	[ Reply ]

These are difficult times we ALL live in this year. My suggestion is that you forget about selling your house till this fall. Your tenant is scared, just like ALL of us are, about the COVID-19 Pandemic. He feels SAFE where he's living now, and to try to find another place "out there", is really scary. If he can keep paying rent, let him, and assess the situation in the fall. Right now, you cannot force him to do ANYTHING, as no courts are operating til this summer or fall. If you want in to do repairs, you may have to PAY him to let you in. My suggestion is that for every 2-4 hours on any given day that he lets you come over to do work, you reduce his rent by 1 day for that month. FOR INSTANCE------ if his rent is $900 per month, that's a daily rent rate of $30/day. If you go to his house 3 days next week, and work on your place 2-4 hours each day, you will deduct $90 off of his next months rent. AGAIN, these are hard times we are ALL living in. COOPERATION by BOTH parties, is the key to getting things done.

Re: I don't want to renew the lease by Tom on May 7, 2020 @22:55	[ Reply ]

I don’t understand/disagree with Garry’s response. Nothing was said about the tenant’s inability to pay rent, or the landlord’s desire to have access before it’s vacant. And if you do want access before it is vacant, you’d need to have a really good relationship with your tenant. Obviously, that’s not the case. What’s really important are the laws in place for your jurisdiction, both your usual landlord/tenant laws, and any temporary ones in place due to COVID-19 . You didn’t state where the rental is, so we can’t help you look them up. For example, in my jurisdiction, I need to give 60 day’s notice to terminate if my tenant has resided there more than 1 year. My local COVID-19 statute establishes a moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent due to COVID-19 income loss. To avoid eviction the tenant must formally notify the landlord and provide proof of the income loss. But that’s my only temporary L/T law. I can still legally evict/terminate for all the other lawful reasons. It perhaps looks bad for a landlord to not renew an ending lease during COVID-19, but it’s not illegal here. Some tenant-favorable jurisdictions have laws requiring "just cause" in order to terminate a tenancy at all. Wanting to sell the property is likely "just cause" though. What do your laws say? Also important is what your lease says about terminations and renewals. Does it automatically renew? Renew for a year? Convert to month-to-month?

Re: I don't want to renew the lease