Agreement to vacate premises

[C0mfortablyNumb]

We have a tenant in a 4 room house with whom we are attempting to sign an agreement to vacate premises. The 3 of us are the current leaseholders, the 4th is not on the lease. As I understand it, he has rights as a month to month tenant. As such, we do have to give him 20 days notice (in Seattle, WA) to move out, and he must comply, regardless of whether or not he wants to. The fact is that he does want to, we simply have a new tenant that is taking his place and wants to move in the same day, so we want to make sure that he is gone and, if not, he is paying fees. The contract is pasted below:

"I, [Tenant Name], agree to vacate the following residence by July 1st, 2010:

Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Seattle, WA 98105

If all property has not been removed by 12:00 pm, a fee of $30 will be charged per extra day that personal property is present within the residence. After five days, a $100 fee will be imposed. Finally, if the premises are not vacated after ten days, all property will be removed, placed into local storage and aforementioned tenant will be responsible for all transportation costs and storage fees.

An equal portion of the residence security deposit, amounting to $445 minus the cost of any damages, will be returned within 30 days of moving out. All debts owed to the leaseholders as a result of a move out delay as described above will also be removed from this deposit, if the deposit is not enough to cover these fees, the tenant will be billed for the remainder."

Is this legal?

 

[army judge]

We have a tenant in a 4 room house with whom we are attempting to sign an agreement to vacate premises. The 3 of us are the current leaseholders, the 4th is not on the lease. As I understand it, he has rights as a month to month tenant. As such, we do have to give him 20 days notice (in Seattle, WA) to move out, and he must comply, regardless of whether or not he wants to. The fact is that he does want to, we simply have a new tenant that is taking his place and wants to move in the same day, so we want to make sure that he is gone and, if not, he is paying fees. The contract is pasted below:

"I, [Tenant Name], agree to vacate the following residence by July 1st, 2010:

Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Seattle, WA 98105

If all property has not been removed by 12:00 pm, a fee of $30 will be charged per extra day that personal property is present within the residence. After five days, a $100 fee will be imposed. Finally, if the premises are not vacated after ten days, all property will be removed, placed into local storage and aforementioned tenant will be responsible for all transportation costs and storage fees.

An equal portion of the residence security deposit, amounting to $445 minus the cost of any damages, will be returned within 30 days of moving out. All debts owed to the leaseholders as a result of a move out delay as described above will also be removed from this deposit, if the deposit is not enough to cover these fees, the tenant will be billed for the remainder."

Is this legal?

Are you incentivizing him to vacate the premises?

It isn't illegal.

What happens if he changes his mind?

The only legal way to get him out, if he chooses to resist or reneg, is to evict him.

For your sake, let's hope your incentives work.

If not, you'll have to evict him.

You might just want to send him the notice letter, just in case he waffles.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Personally, if I received such a notice, I'd respond with two words, the first one starting with an "F" and the second with a "Y".

In other words, I'd dig in my heels and tell you to "sue me".

Sometimes it works better if the holdover tenant is paid to get out.

Gail

 

[FlaRiptide]

Again, in other words, your self made contract is "self serving". The tenant would be a fool to sign it as it does NOT benefit him at all. It would probably piss him off if anything!

If you have any concerns that he may change his mind about moving out completely by the specified date then give him an incentive that benefits him.

Change your contract to read that if he vacates the property no later than 12:00pm July 1st, he shall receive a $100 cash gift. This won't guarantee his departure, but now gives him a positive reason to vacate in lieu of a negative one.