In case you are holding over after your term

Most leases are for a fixed term, such as for one year. What happens when the lease ends, but you’re not ready to move out? That is, you don’t want to stay for another full year, but you need another month or two until your new place is ready. Or perhaps you are sure you do not want another full year, but you’re still looking for a new place.

In practice, when tenants stay beyond their lease, they become a “holdover tenant” under a month-to-month term. If you stay past your term, pay the monthly rent, and your landlord accepts that rent without objection, you can stay on that month-to-month tenancy paying the same rent you were paying during your lease. Sometimes, the lease will specify a higher rate of rent for holdover tenants, so you should look for that term in your lease. It is not unreasonable for the landlord to ask for a higher rate, but sometimes the leases specify a punishing increase in the rent to discourage holdover tenants. Make sure you check for that in the lease.

Also, be careful that you do not get trapped into staying longer than you wish. If you stay even one day beyond the term of your lease, you immediately become a month-to-month tenant who is liable not just for that month’s rent, but also the next month’s rent. And if you do not give notice by the end of your current month of your intention to vacate at the end of the next month, you will be liable for yet another month. That is, if your lease ends September 30th and you hold over, you are liable for October and November’s rent at the same monthly rate you were paying. If you then give notice of your intent to leave by the end of November, your month-to-month lease ends on November 30th. But if you do not give notice until October 1, technically you are responsible for the rental obligations through December 31st.

As always, if you are fair and honest with your landlord, you can probably negotiate a fair short-term rental at the end of your lease. The most important issue to the landlord is having a rent-paying tenant in the property at all times, so if you let the landlord know that you want to stay beyond your lease, but not for another full term, the landlord will probably accommodate you.