Consumer Law, Warranties Disputing a Notice of Intent to Vacate

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renterJoe

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Hello, I have a situation in which I need some help/advice. I am currently renting an apartment with my wife and son. Our contract expires on July 28th, but we had decided to move earlier (b/c work problems), we talked to the manager and he agreed to pardon part of the penalty and we decided to move on March 31 st. (we filled a notice of intent to vacate) Things improved in the job and we asked the Manager to extend the move out date to April 31st, and then to May 31st. which he agreed (all these later communications by email). We now have decided that we want to stay until the expiration of our contract (July 28th) but when we talked to the manager she said she had already rented the apartment and that we have to leave by Mid June. Is there anything we can do to stay until the end of our contract? Since the notice of intent to vacate was not enforced either by the tenant or us for 2 months, does it becomes invalid? or is still in effect?

Thanks for your help,
 
Do Nothing; Say Nothing; Leave on the 28th!

No whimsy intended, but I didn't even know there was such a thing as a "notice of intention to vacate," just like I thought there could not possibly be any decent property managers left in the world.

But notice or no notice, there is nothing for you to dispute and you really do not have to DO anything special or say anything in the way of legalese in order to stay where you are until July 28th and the new tenants will just have to plan their move-in for July 29th and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do (or will be willing to do) to force you out by June 15th per your lease agreement, which by the way, confers on you and your family an unequivocal possessory interest (right) in the rental unit for the stated time frame. PERIOD!

The property manager has of course been put in a bit of a dilemma due to your teeter-tottering on the move-out date and may well get a rollicking from the in-coming tenants, but that's par for the course and very much part and parcel of being a property manager. And you should NOT, in any shape or form, willingly or unwillingly feel obligated or be forced to feel obligated or responsible and get involved by way communication or dialogue with the in-coming tenants. Just let her handle it.

The only potential negative for you in this scenario could be the forfeiting of a good portion or even all of the security deposit.

fredrikklaw
 
Dear fredrikklaw, Thanks for your response I feel more secure now. What should I do if the tenant send a vacate notice? or files an eviction notice?
Actually, I was reading the lease agreement and according to that if we wanted to terminate the lease early we should have filed a different notice called: "early termination notice". The "notie of intent to vacate" (the one that we signed) is used at the end of the lease to let the lender know that you does not intend to renew.
I remember in the a previous community we moved a month early, and I remember that the manager said that by law, they could not rent the place until the end of the lease agreement even if we leave early. I wonder if that's true in this case as well, and the manager made a mistake by renting it before we had surrender the premises?
 
renter_Joe said:
Dear fredrikklaw, Thanks for your response I feel more secure now. What should I do if the tenant send a vacate notice? or files an eviction notice?
Actually, I was reading the lease agreement and according to that if we wanted to terminate the lease early we should have filed a different notice called: "early termination notice". The "notie of intent to vacate" (the one that we signed) is used at the end of the lease to let the lender know that you does not intend to renew.
I remember in the a previous community we moved a month early, and I remember that the manager said that by law, they could not rent the place until the end of the lease agreement even if we leave early. I wonder if that's true in this case as well, and the manager made a mistake by renting it before we had surrender the premises?
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Yes, the manager was remiss to rent the property BEFORE you left and the unit had been properly prepared.

As Frederikklaw accurately stated, it is your leasehold.

That is an inviolate and indisputable fact!

Follow FL's well advised and on point advice.
 
Only the crazy would rock the boat!

Renter_Joe:

Before anything, my apologies for the late response!

The property manager took proactive steps and did what was POSITIVELY yours to do, which was to mitigate damages to the landlord by finding an incoming tenant to cover any lapse in the lease. She did this on reliance of your moving out and the new tenants signed a new lease relying on the same which for all intents and purposes makes you liable to both those parties for any damages they might incur as a result of you pushing back the move-out date, which as good fortune would have it, happens to be the date on which your current lease expires.

Do the new tenants or the property manager (or both) have a legal cause to move against you with an eviction action? Sure they do.

Would they do it though; or is such an action even feasible considering the disputed time frame would be around 30 days or so? No; absolutely not. Nobody in their right mind would care to rock the boat for such a small matter, especially when you will have vacated the premise by that date any ways.

But all things said and done, you still have an ace up your sleeve in way of defense and have nothing to worry about even if such an action is brought, which would really only be to recover nominal damages by incoming tenants. The question that would decide liability would be if such a delay was reasonable and foreseeable by the average person? To which the answer would be a rousing, yes!

Now, if you had said that you would move out within the next six months or may be early next year, then that would have been a different story. But as things stand at the moment, don't fret it and just concentrate on moving out.

Good Luck!

fredrikklaw
 
Dear fredrikklaw,

Thanks for your response, but now I am a little confused since you changed a little bit what you said before.
Now, I was reading the lease agreement and it mentions the "notice of intend to vacate" in the paragraph "Renewal Lease and end of Lease term" and it literally says: "If you deliver us a written notice of intend to vacate this lease will terminate on the Lease End Date, and you must vacate and remove your possessions from the premises by the Lease End Date". So the lease agreement does not mention any move out date. What of the two documents takes precedence?
Also, under the "Early Termination" section it says that we should have filed an "Early Termination Notice" specifying the "early termination date", not "a notice of intend to vacate" in order to terminate the lease early. But anyways, I was wondering that since we had said that we were going to leave by march 31st (which was two months ago) but did not and the manager agreed and continued to collect the rent, the previous "notice of intend to vacate" is not valid anymore?
Also, since the lease is still in effect I was going to file another "notice of intend to vacate" with an updated move out date since the lease will expire by the end of July, will this help?
 
I was reading the "Virginia Residential Landlord and
Tenant Act" and found this, Does it apply to my situation?

"C. In the event of termination of a rental agreement and the tenant remains in possession with the agreement of the landlord either as a hold-over tenant or a month-to-month tenant and no new rental agreement is entered into, the terms of the terminated agreement shall remain in effect and govern the hold-over or month-to-month tenancy, except that the amount of rent shall be either as provided in the terminated rental agreement or the amount set forth in a written notice to the tenant, provided that such new rent amount shall not take effect until the next rent due date coming 30 days after the notice."

Thanks,
 
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