Can I sue a month-to-month tenant for lost of rent if they moved out without 30 days notice?

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Can I sue a month-to-month tenant for lost of rent if they moved out without 30 days notice?

Tenant’s lease agreement expired and tenant refused to sign a new lease, so they became a month-to-month tenant. Tenant is a section 8 tenant.

Asked on August 4, 2011 New York

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

A month-to-month tenant must provide 30 days notice to terminate the tenancy, so if a month-to-month tenant moves out without providing sufficient notice, the landlord could sue for the notice month's rent.

However, it is doubtful that it is worthwhile to sue in this case. You write that this is a Section 8 tenant; that means that he or she presumably has few assets and little income. Even if you sued and won, if the tenant does not then voluntarily pay the court judgment, you may not be able to recovery your money--there may be too little income to garnish, no real property to lien, nothing else of value to execute on, etc. It is very rarely worth suing a Section 8 tenant.


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