Commercial Lease Rate of Rent After Expiration of Initial Lease Term

[Norsemanu]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California

Thank you for this forum. I just found it and registered today. I wish I would have found this a long time ago! Anyway, I think some of the experts in this area of law may find my situation an interesting one. I am in a situation now where I am in dire need for your input, as the lessor in my current location is trying to say that I owe them money.

My question has to do with a lease agreement that has expired, and several months were allowed to go by before any new lease agreement is agreed upon (which we are in the process of trying to do today). In my case, 4 months have gone by since my last (6 month) lease had expired, and the lessor has allowed me to continue to have my business there... Now the lessor wants to negotiate a new lease under different terms, but they're also saying I owe them money for those past 4 months. The problem is, there was a unique clause in the 6 month agreement we had, which they seem to want to ignore... almost like they are not reverting back to our previous lease agreement for this 4 month span (of having no formal lease agreement) and they're trying to put in place some generic idea of a lease. If the past 4 months had no formal lease in place, doesn't it revert back to the previous lease agreement, and all of it's verbage that was agreed upon previously? If this isn’t the case, why wouldn't it revert back to the previous lease agreement? And what would be the guidline to follow as to what is owed?

There's actually a great deal more to this situation, but I'm trying to make this post as short as possible. It is an interesting situation because of the unique arrangement which was made between my business and the lessor... I can try and explain at least some of the arrangement here, in case you want to know more of this unique arrangement... if you think that would be required, just let me know and I can post some of the details of the arrangement here.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you can show a history of exchanges, back and forth, with each side proposing different terms or modifications of the lease, followed by your entry into the negotiated lease, it's not reasonable for them to claim that the lease you entered is not the one you (and they) negotiated. If you negotiated those terms and, at the end of the negotiations, received a completely different lease, it may be possible for them to convince a court that they sent the wrong lease.

In terms of what happens after a lease expires, that depends in part upon the language of the lease. If the lease provides for how renewal is to occur, and any such requirements (or, for automatic renewal, lack of proper notice of termination) are met, then the lease would normally renew per its terms. if the lease provides that it goes month-to-month pending negotiation of a new lease, then that's what happens. Normally, even in the absence of language in the lease relating to what happens post-expiration, the landlord's continued acceptance of monthly rent from you after the expiration of the lease term will transform your holding over into a month-to-month tenancy.

Your rights will turn on the facts.