Need Advice for Landlord/ Lease Troubles
Apr. 28th, 2010 05:56 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
edithspage.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareHi guys,
I wanted to get your input on a situation that I have in Davis Sq. I currently rent the 2nd floor of a house. My landlord is making me decide 5 months in advance whether or not I am renewing the lease. She wanted me to decide by April 1st. But we were/are unsure if we are staying.
So I didn't resign--explained that the job situation is unsure at the moment-- asked if we can please have a month to think about it. She has now re-listed the apartment for $400 more per month than we pay now & has brokers coming through our apartment showing it. Says we will now have to resign at the new rate. Also, now for 5 whole months before we move out we have to deal with brokers trekking through our house with potential renters?
Has anyone else experienced this before? Is it normal to have to resign the lease 5 months prior? Are all the places in Davis Sq/ Cambridge area like this? I am new to MA.
Also there is no "out" in the lease, so we'd be responsible for the entire year if we re-signed.
My questions are:
1. Do all apartment leases in Davis Sq require 5 months advance notice for resigning the lease?
2. Is it legal for landlord to show my apartment for 5 months in advance?
3. Do all the leases in the area require you to be fully responsible for the entire lease if you are job relocated? I have lived in NYC, Los Angeles, and NC & there is always an "out clause" on every lease. You pay a penalty (usually 1 months rent, sometimes 2), but always there is a way to break the lease without being fully responsible for the entire time left.
I wanted to get your input on a situation that I have in Davis Sq. I currently rent the 2nd floor of a house. My landlord is making me decide 5 months in advance whether or not I am renewing the lease. She wanted me to decide by April 1st. But we were/are unsure if we are staying.
So I didn't resign--explained that the job situation is unsure at the moment-- asked if we can please have a month to think about it. She has now re-listed the apartment for $400 more per month than we pay now & has brokers coming through our apartment showing it. Says we will now have to resign at the new rate. Also, now for 5 whole months before we move out we have to deal with brokers trekking through our house with potential renters?
Has anyone else experienced this before? Is it normal to have to resign the lease 5 months prior? Are all the places in Davis Sq/ Cambridge area like this? I am new to MA.
Also there is no "out" in the lease, so we'd be responsible for the entire year if we re-signed.
My questions are:
1. Do all apartment leases in Davis Sq require 5 months advance notice for resigning the lease?
2. Is it legal for landlord to show my apartment for 5 months in advance?
3. Do all the leases in the area require you to be fully responsible for the entire lease if you are job relocated? I have lived in NYC, Los Angeles, and NC & there is always an "out clause" on every lease. You pay a penalty (usually 1 months rent, sometimes 2), but always there is a way to break the lease without being fully responsible for the entire time left.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:06 pm (UTC)Am I getting this right?
A) The person from whom you rent has announced that, as of September 1, 2010, the rent for your apartment will be {current rent + $400}.
B) She has given you an opportunity to renew the lease for another year at the new rent, but any lease you signed would have to be for a full year.
C) You don't know whether or not you want to do that.
Is that right?
Answer to your questions:
1. No, it's unusual to be asked to commit to a new lease this far in advance.
2. As I understand it, it is legal under Massachusetts law for owners to show an apartment to prospective tenants or buyers (or their brokers) at any point during the lease. Landlords do have an obligation to arrange mutually convenient times with their tenants, though.
3. There are certainly some landlords who rent on a "tenant at will" basis, but the majority of landlords do rent on a 12-month lease basis. I think this is true in most communities where there are lots of university students; landlords don't want to get stuck with people moving out mid-lease.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 01:55 am (UTC)$400 is a lot, but I've been in similar situations where they asked $250 more. I only assume they want to start high for neg. purposes.
By law, they need to give you (I *think*) 48 hour notice about showing a place or entering you *HOME*. Remember that this is your home. You can seriously stick to your guns on this one and say you will consider withholding rent if they breach this law if they don't play nice. At the same time, I would recommend not withholding rent except as a last resort---it can reall mess up your credit. Remember, this is also the landlord's livelihood and they have a right to find a new tenant.
FINALLY, it's really difficult for a landlord to recoup lost rent in a broken lease agreement. Again, not rec., but don't fret too much.
Hahah!
Date: 2010-04-29 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 01:12 am (UTC)27 years. Seriously.
But I have owned for the last 10+ years, so maybe things have changed.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:20 pm (UTC)1) No.
2) Yes.
3) No. (ie. You are responsible for the whole term of the lease.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:25 pm (UTC)It is possible to find an apartment that will let you rent month-to-month, but it is rare. If you sign a lease, then you agree to pay for the entire term of the lease or find a subletter. There is no such thing as a lease that obliges the landlord to keep your rent fixed for a year, but doesn't oblige you to stay for the year. If you have a month-to-month agreement the landlord can raise your rent by any amount at any time.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:31 pm (UTC)Sadly, my landlord has a No Subleters rule written into our lease, so if we resign, then get job relocated we are SCREWED.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:35 pm (UTC)Many leases have no subletting clauses, but that doesn't actually prevent you from subletting. It just means you cannot do it without your landlord approving the new tenant and signing a new lease with them. If you're not on good terms with your landlord, it does make things more difficult, but as another poster mentioned, most landlords would prefer someone paying the rent and are willing to accommodate.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 11:04 pm (UTC)A Tenant with a Lease is one who signs a lease to rent a particular apartment for a specified period of time. Under this tenancy, the landlord cannot increase your rent until the end of the lease, and cannot attempt to evict you before the end of your lease, unless you violate the lease agreement. You are legally obligated to pay your rent until the end of the lease. However, if you need or choose to move out before the end of the lease, in most circumstances the landlord has a duty to mitigate his/her loss by looking for another tenant to replace you.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 01:17 am (UTC)Landlords don't do this here, because so many tenants are university students/grad students or people doing residencies/fellowships at the various hospitals, that they would get screwed all the time. In New York and Los Angeles the patterns of apartment turnover are not as cyclical as they are in Boston, because the student population is not such a high percentage of the rental market.
It really sounds like you should move and find a "tenant at will" situation, hassleful as that would be, because my guess is that this landlord would absolutely take you to court for the balance of a broken lease (just on the basis of her actions so far).
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 11:25 am (UTC)My lease has a clause that it automatically renews unless one of us notifies the other that we do not wish to renew it. Honestly I'd rather have to protection of a lease anyway, so I don't mind.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 10:24 pm (UTC)It is legal for your landlord to show your apartment, though they do need to give you warning. (This will presumably stop if they find another tenant, or if you decide to re-sign.)
Most yearly leases do not have an "out" (but many tenants are on a month to month basis with no lease, in which case either party can give a month's notice). If you have a yearly lease and need to leave, if you can find a replacement or sub-letter, landlords will often be accommodating, because they'd rather have someone paying the rent than try to sue someone who's left town.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 11:01 pm (UTC)If they're not being reasonable about the brokers, here are some things to keep in mind:
possession. Young v. Garwacki, 380 Mass. 162, 170 (1980); Strycharski v. Spillane, 320 Mass. 382, 385 (1946). According to
the order of the Housing Court, a landlord must give reasonable notice (at least 24 hours) to the tenant in order to enter
to make repairs." (Source. (http://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/legal-tactics1/chapter2-moving-in.pdf))
Hopefully some of this is useful. (You might be thinking, why did she have all of those links??? I've had a couple of realtors/brokers/whichever come into my house without asking in the past week and if they keep it up I'm considering escalating; one of them accidentally (I hope) locked my cat in a confined space, and since they didn't call ahead, I have no idea who it was.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 11:15 pm (UTC)There are often many things landlords need to do, which they fail to do, which entitle you to damages. There are also many things they try to get away with which are not legal, especially in re damages - yet many are uninformed so take the hit.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 11:28 pm (UTC)That said some other things you can do are just make things very difficult on the realtors and insist on 24 hours notice and specific times making it clear that you will be filing criminal complaints against anyone who doesn't follow them (and actually do so. Keep a web cam watching the entrance or something similar). Illegally entering a residence is a serious offense.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 02:45 am (UTC)If your landlord starts just showing your place with little to no notice, even after you've objected (or if they say they want to show the place 3 days in advance of your, say, birthday party, and you say no and they show up anyway) you can take to wearing little to no clothes in your home (or perhaps only a robe?) and act surprised and also object to the invasion. No matter what your landlord says, the prospect has seen how little the landlord respects their tenant's privacy, therefore giving them fair warning that the landlord will most certainly do the same to them in the future.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 10:57 pm (UTC)mind, the laws in my state are different, nonetheless, i've had to tell my landlord(s) a few times that certain things will not fly, and i INSIST in the strongest possible way, that certain things WILL happen to my desires, thus...
insist on ground rules, in writing, so they might not be legal, or enforceable, but if you STATE them up front, the landlord/realtor will be harder pressed to claim lack of knowing.
o they MUST make an appointment. a no show == make a new appointment, not show up the next day.
o okay to show or for random repairs, but a tenant MUST be home to supervise and let people in. nobody home? nobody comes in. period.
o you WILL call the police if they break the rules. see other advise on the restraining order bit - that's gold.
if possible, determine legal status of changing the locks. oh yes.
consider an alarm system of some type - motion sensitive...
i have web cam software that will send to an offsite server AND email to my phone whenever it detects an intrusion. pretty creepy getting a picture on your phone of someone in your place, but it's priceless when accusing someone of being there. oh yes indeed.
have fun shopping for some horrifying things to leave for random unannounced guests ;) should have another poll/contest for best items ;)
#
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 01:03 am (UTC)- this landlord is either a control freak, or has some other beef with you and is trying this tactic to get you to move, or is just stone cold crazy.
- it is not normal to hike the rent by that much in a single year unless there have been serious renovations on your place.
- given your job situation uncertainties, I'd recommend waiting the month, and if she finds someone to rent it in that time, no great loss -- there are plenty of apartments available in September if you are staying in the area.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 03:02 am (UTC)I lived in my apartment in Porter for nine years and never had a rent increase. Now, maybe that's not normal either, but...$400 in one year? Wow.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 03:24 am (UTC)That kind of raise sounds absurd, though, unless you got a spectacular deal in the first place. Last year I was able to get my rent reduced - the market was soft in general, and there was a near-identical place next door being listed on Craigslist for less. I don't think the market has spiked since then, so it's time for you to do some research to find out if $400 is even remotely reasonable.
Having no "out" is totally normal here. But as other people have said, it's awfully hard for the landlord to actually collect if you up and leave, and they have an affirmative obligation to try and re-rent it -they don't get to just sit back and collect money from you until the lease expires.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 01:20 am (UTC)This is not a chance I would want to take; it's neither hard nor expensive for landlords to get a judgment against you for the balance of a lease, and it's not something you want on a credit report.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 02:41 pm (UTC)* requires renewal signing in Feb/March for their Sept 1st leases.
* will start showing the apt as soon as you tell then you're leaving or when the renewal submission due by date passes.
* often does not give adequate notice ( usually the brokers' fault as they are the ones who set up the appointments and contact the current tenants - I don't know if they're better about it now - the property manager gave them what for last time it happened.)
* has an out in the lease. I believe it requires us to pay a set amount of rent, assist in getting the place rented and pay costs attributed to getting the place rented.
* raised the rent steadily for the first few years but usually only by $50 or so .
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 03:33 pm (UTC)I have friends who have made a point of getting their rent lowered every year they were in a place (though you can only manage that for so many years).
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 06:57 pm (UTC)Welcome to renting. The only thing worse then renting someone else's apartment is renting out your apartment to someone else.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 07:28 pm (UTC)