My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California I have a rental agreement that has the box Lease checked, but under the term dates, "beginning on" and "terminating on" the fill-in areas are BLANK/EMPTY. We had a six month verbal agreement with the landlord and on the same page of the lease, the rent payment area states "rent payments from 7/08 - 1/1/09. We paid our last months rent and notified the landlord, via certified mail that we were not extending our "six month lease" and would be completely vacated by December 1. He wrote us in return to say that he needed our last months rent, December and would send us our deposit upon "check-out" of the property. We has 6 other e-mails with his response, in which we reiterate "our six month lease" he never once disputes or responds negatively to the e-mails. In fact, in one e-mail he calls us "great tenants." Now, out of the blue, after inquiring as to why we haven't received our deposit, writes us to tell us that we had a years lease and he is holding us to it. I have a pdf of the original lease with his signatures and the term dates are blank. Can he get away with this? If the term dates are not there is it a valid lease? Or is this a month to month by default?

