How to get around a 60 day notice provision in a lease?
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How to get around a 60 day notice provision in a lease?
I have to vacate a rented house where I am staying since May 2011.As per the lease terms, lease ends on the 28th of next month. However, the leasing office has a policy to provide 2 months written notice. While signing the last contract, I mentioned verbally that I would vacate the house since I bought a house and would be moving there next month. I received a general reminder recently and I went to the leasing office to remind them about my intent. According to them, I have to pay the rent for the month after next even if I don’t stay as the notice terms of 60 days starts from today. Is there a provision in law which will allow me to save the rent for that month?
Asked on October 29, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Texas
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
From what you have written, the terms of the presumed written lease that you have are valid and control with respect to the sixty (60) day notice of termination of your lease.
As such, the time period placing you on notice that your lease will be ending in sixty (60) days begins running from the date you were served with it. As such, you are obligated under the contract for two (2) more months of rent where you while you are looking for a new place to reside.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
A provision in a lease requiring 60 days notice of nonrenewal or termination of tenancy is enforceable. The issue though is whether that is a provision in (or explicitly incorporated into) the lease or not--that is, if a written lease states that tenancy ends on November 28, then a "policy" of the leasing office requring 60 days notice would be irrelevant--such a policy cannot override the plain terms of the lease, including the end date, unless and only if the policy is contained within or plainly incorporated into the lease. On the other hand, if the lease requires 60 days notice regardless of the end date, then you would need to provide such notice. Therefore, you need to review the lease--which is a contract, after all--itself to determine your rights and obligations.
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