By Robert Griswold
Question: I am an owner and I have a tenant on a one-year lease that will expire at the end of next month. My tenant wishes to stay, but only on a month-to-month basis. Can I just continue accepting the monthly lease payments or do I need to actually prepare a new written rental agreement?Property manager Griswold replies:
It depends on the wording of your existing lease. The most commonly used standard lease forms available nationally call for the rollover to a month-to-month rental agreement upon the expiration of the minimum term of the lease. If your lease contains this language, then just continue to accept the monthly rent.
However, note that there are some lease forms that do not contain the automatic rollover language, converting the lease to a month-to-month rental agreement on the same basic terms and conditions. In this case, if you continue to accept the monthly rental payments, a month-to-month tenancy is implied. This will generally not create any problems; however, it would be much better to prepare and have both parties sign a new written month-to-month rental agreement so that the rights and responsibilities are clear. Read your expiring lease carefully to avoid surprises.
Landlords' attorney Smith replies:
Mr. Griswold is correct. Take a close look at your lease. In most cases, it will have a clause stating the tenancy will convert to month-to-month following expiration of the original term. At that point, the landlord or tenant may give the other a 30-day written notice terminating what has become a month-to-month tenancy. Without this clause, a month-to-month is still implied. It would be better, though, to have the tenant sign a new agreement (either lease or month-to-month) so that everyone has the same understanding.
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