Need Advice for Landlord/ Lease Troubles

[edithspage.livejournal.com]

Hi 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.

Comments

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

My experience with month-to-month rental all involves living somewhere for several years under a landlord who just owned one or two places. Most landlords don't want to start out month-to-month, but if in the fourth year of renting, they forget to renew the lease, that's what you turn into. :)

[jenskot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what's up with the "forgetting"? I've been at my place for five years, and in the beginning it was all very business-business, but the past two years I've had to beg and cry for a lease, and it's quite off-putting for the person who moved in last year. While I appreciate that the landlord trusts us not to eff up their apartment, is there any way to insist upon a lease for our own protection?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

If the landlord forgets to reissue a lease agreement, Mass. law deems you to have automatically become a tenant at will.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Heh, nice!

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.