About paying rent when not living in a home
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About paying rent when not living in a home
I was on a month-to-month lease of a home. I put in my 30 day notice to leave on 01/03, which the landlord told me that I would be need to be out by 02/02. About 2 weeks later, the rest of the tenants of the home received a 30 Day notice to vacate letter from the landlords. I moved out of the house 2-3 days after that 30 day notice to vacate was received and all of the tenants will be out by 01/31, with the move out inspection happening today, 01/30. The real estate company is now telling us we still owe rent for the month of February even though nobody will be living there at all. Do we legally still have to pay that rent and more importantly am I still responsible for it since I gave my 30 day notice of leaving before that notice to vacate even arrived?
Asked on January 30, 2017 under Real Estate Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
1) The obligation to pay rent has nothing to do with living in the home or not: neither the landlord nor the law cares about whether you live in a home, and you are, of course, allowed to rent a place you are not then occupying and still have to pay for it.
2) The rental is collective, for the whole home and for all tenants. IF not all tenants gave a 30-day notice at the same time, the tenancy--and the obligation to pay rent--continues until the last or latest notice period expires; so your fellow tenants taking longer than you could cause you to owe rent, too.
3) In addition, rent is due in advance for a whole month on the first of the month. So if you gave notice on 1/3/17, that notice is not effective for 1/31/17, since that is less than a month. Rather, it would be effective for 2/2/17; but by 2/2/17, you already owe rent for February.
Based on what you write, you apparently do owe the rent.
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