My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
I am a tenant who has been living in my studio apartment for about two years now. I moved in on a 1 year lease and then renewed on another 1 year lease. My lease is set to expire at the end of this month (July 2012). For a few different reasons, I want to switch to a month-to-month lease because I may be moving sometime in the next few months and I do not want to get locked in on a long-term lease that would preclude my flexibility to do so.
At the end of last month (June 2012) I emailed my landlord to inform him that I wanted to go on a month-to-month basis. He said that because of my proximity to a nearby University, he is only ok with extending my lease until December 31, 2012 so that it will be easier to find a new tenant if I decide to vacate (most tenants in the area are students so he wants to time it with the school semester schedule). I do not want to get locked in for another 5 months when I may be needing to move anytime in between now and December.
Is his reluctance to let me go month-to-month legal? It was my understanding that in DC, a tenant has the right to go month-to-month when the lease expires. Perhaps I am misinterpreting or misunderstanding the law, but the sense I've gotten from most people is that I'm entitled to go month-to-month after my lease expires. Can somebody with definitive knowledge or experience of the law in DC help me out with this? Thank you.

