Landlord Informed Tenants of Selling House, Can Tenants Give Notice
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of:
My landlord informed me 4 days ago that her and her husband have separated and she is looking to sell the house that I am renting. She explained that she felt horrible for having to sell the house, but she is wanting to buy a condo. She has come to take pictures of the house and a real-estate worker came to do an appraisal.
The landlord has offered to have a condition of the home being sold that they hopefully would let us stay till the end of our contract but no guarantees. BUT/..... we have 5 months left on our one year lease and it is hard to find places to Rent that allows the breed of dog we have.
I wanted to know, I went and got a pre-approval for a mortgage, I have informed the Landlord and asked for the understanding due to the unforeseen circumstance and at any moment the house could be sold, and us finding the perfect house on the market right now if we could get out of our lease.
I have looked over our rental lease. It states :
1 I/we hereby agree to lease the above stated premise for a period of 12 months commencing on Nov 1 2010 and ending at noon of Oct 01 2011 and continuing thereafter month to month.
I/we understand that one months notice in writing, in advance must be given before the first day of a month to vacate these premises.
any legal advice to help us not have to pay out our lease would be really appreciated.
Re: Landlord Informed Tenants of Selling House, Can Tenants Give Notice
The landlord's sale of the house does not terminate the tenancy, nor is it grounds for either party to unilaterally walk away from the lease.
Re: Landlord Informed Tenants of Selling House, Can Tenants Give Notice
If your LL won't let you break the lease when you want, then both of you are stuck. If the LL wants to sell ASAP, then she should work with you on breaking the lease at some short period of time after it is sold. Her RE Agent should want you gone now or at least be able to say that you will vacate with X days of the house being sold.
Only an Investor would want a tenant. An Investor would want a long term lease (12 months) on the Investors terms which may not include your dog, the present rent income and a number of other factors.
My bet is that you will see this through until the end of the lease considering market conditions, the time it takes to list, sell and occupy a home and the unlikelihood that an Investor will want you to stay under terms agreeable to both T and LL.