Do terms of an expired lease apply when dealing with required notice to leave?

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Do terms of an expired lease apply when dealing with required notice to leave?

I just gave my landlord 5 weeks notice. My written apartment lease was up 10 months ago. They told me my original lease requires 60 days notice. Can they hold me to that despite the fact that my initial lease has expired and I never signed a new lease? Or am I in a month-to-month lease and my 5 weeks are enough? The old lease does say, “#33 EXPIRATION of CURRENT LEASE: If you intend to terminate your tenancy at the end of this lease period, you agree to give us 60 days notice in writing prior to the end of your lease. If you continue to occupy the unit, with our consent, after the lease ends, the lease will be on a month-to-month basis. In that case, either you or we can send notice at any time to the other to cancel the month-to-month lease. Such termination shall be preceded by 60 days written notice. If you stay for any part of a month, you are responsible for paying rent for the whole month.”

Asked on December 28, 2011 under Real Estate Law, Connecticut

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

Contracts, including leases, can have terms which survive, or continue, past their expiration, as your lease evidently does. There is a seeming ambiguity in that term, in that it says that a holdover tenancy will be on a month to month basis, which ordinarily may be terminated on 30 days notice; however, it also says that you (or the landlord) must provide 60 days notice. When there is a seeming contradiction in a contract or lease, usually the more specific term will control; since the 60 day notice requirement is more specific than the general reference to a month to month lease, it is most likely the case that you are obligated to provide 60 days notice.


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