If our landlord terminates our lease, do we have to pay anything further if we are month-to-month?
Question Details:
On the 26th of last month we were told by our landlords that we have until the 31 of next month to find a new place (because they are moving into our apartment; they broke our lease). The landlords wrote a formal letter stating this to us and said we have to give them a 60 day notice of when we are leaving and are demanding us to pay for next month's rent, when we are moving out the end of this month. Why would we have to give them 60 days written notice if they are terminating our lease and giving us notice? And why would we have to pay for next month if we are not even going to be in the place?
Landlord / Tenant Law Answers
With a month to month lease, either party may terminate the lease on 30 days notice. That in turn means that more than 30 days notice is not required, and also that the tenant, if the landlord terminates the lease, is not responsible for more than another 30 days of rent.
In addition, even if it was lease for a specific term, once the landlord offers to let you out of the lease and you accept that--i.e. they asked you to leave by the 31st; you accepted--they cannot hold you liable for rent beyond the time that you and they mutually agreed to terminate the lease. And since this would apply to leases for a specific term, it applies to month to month leases, too--once there is mutual agreement on a termination date, the tenant is not liable beyond that.
Thus, there are two theories under which you should not be liable for 60 days rent.
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