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  1. #1
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    Jun 2013
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    Default Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

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

    I've been renting a townhome for 4 years on a year-to-year lease. Lease was up this month. Landlord and I negotiated a new lease (12 months at $1900 a month) via email last month and he said he'd be by with the new lease to sign.

    Two weeks later he calls and says he's selling. Sold it to another real-estate investor who now wants $2100 a month. The place is in escrow now.

    So: does the agreement we reached via email constitute a legally binding, written lease agreement? If so, would the new owner be expected to honor it the same way they'd have to honor a signed lease agreement? Neither my landlord nor the new owner seem to think so.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

    If the new landlord attempts to terminate your tenancy, and the matter goes to court, you can attempt to prove that your email exchange bound your prior landlord to an additional one year term. I'm not going to speculate as to whether a court would be convinced by the email exchange, as I haven't read it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    Default Re: Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

    Thanks. I'm not worried about the new owner terminating my tenancy - he's willing to rent to me. It just bothers me that I'm the only one who feels like I already have a lease agreement. Which went something like this:

    LL: lease is almost up. Do you want to renew for another year? Rent will be $1900 (a $50 increase)
    ME: Yes, I'd like to renew for 12 months at $1900.
    LL: Great. I'll bring the paperwork to sign at the end of the month
    ME: Cool.

    Not verbatim but that clear. Obviously if I had been able to sign the papers this wouldn't be an issue, but I'm sure that having a signed lease would have been a liability for the seller so he never brought it by. And the buyer feels like he's not bound to anything that was between me & the seller because my (signed) lease is up. So now my rent is going to jump a total of $250 a month.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    18,340

    Default Re: Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

    Quote Quoting gr4ntastic
    View Post
    LL: lease is almost up. Do you want to renew for another year? Rent will be $1900 (a $50 increase)
    ME: Yes, I'd like to renew for 12 months at $1900.
    LL: Great. I'll bring the paperwork to sign at the end of the month
    ME: Cool.
    I don't like it.

    I would have liked this better:

    Quote Quoting gr4ntastic
    View Post
    LL: lease is almost up. Do you want to renew for another year? Rent will be $1900 (a $50 increase)
    ME: Yes, I'd like to renew for 12 months at $1900.
    LL: Great.
    ME: Cool.
    See the difference?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    3

    Default Re: Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

    Yes. Now that seems better. But if he hadn't brought a lease and hadn't sold, I would think that I'd be obligated to pay the increased, agreed-upon amount at the start of the new lease term. But maybe I'm a sucker.

    I'm just screwed, huh?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    18,340

    Default Re: Landlord is Selling Unit After We Agreed to New Lease Via Email

    Quote Quoting gr4ntastic
    View Post
    Yes. Now that seems better. But if he hadn't brought a lease and hadn't sold, I would think that I'd be obligated to pay the increased, agreed-upon amount at the start of the new lease term. But maybe I'm a sucker.

    I'm just screwed, huh?
    Too early to tell.

    One option is to tender the $1900 to the new owner at the next rent due date along with a copy of the email and a cover letter advising the new owner that he has assumed the 12 month obligation of the former owner.

    Then see what happens.

    Or just decline the new owner's offer and confirm, in writing, that you'll be moving out at the expiration of the lease.

    You might want to try that anyway, as a matter of strategy. Keep in mind that the new owner just put out a lot of cash to buy and close on the place and he might mellow out if faced with having to come in and clean up, advertise, and maybe go a month without a tenant.

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