Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Automatic renewal clause
Our company signed a month-to-month lease to provide temporary corporate housing for an employee. At the time the lease was signed, we were not sure how many months the employee would stay there while he looked for permanent housing. We signed the lease and paid the first month. The lease states ''...contract will automatically renew...unless a 30 day written notice to vacate is given...'' The employee moved at the end of the first month (4/30). We did not give 30 day notice because that was the same time that the lease was started, nor did we know that he would vacate at that time. The landlord claims that our company owes rent for May and June, even though the unit is vacant. We never received any keys nor did we receive a bill for the month of May and the June bill does not show that we are past due. Once I saw the June bill, I sent a notice to the landlord that the employee vacated 4/30. The lease clearly states the ending date of 4/30 and the renewal clause is 'hidden' within the body of the lease. I saw a note on your website that states, ''Automatic-renewal clauses cannot be enforced unless they are printed in bold type and of a certain size.'' Are we responsible for May & June rent? What steps should we take?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Automatic renewal clause
Basically a month to month lease, or periodic tenancy, ends at the each term of a lease. If the tenant holds over until the next lease period, the lease automatically renews pursuant to the terms of the previous lease, unless notice of vacating is given, even without the auto-renewal clause!!
In your case it appears that you did not give written notice of termination of the lease as required by the lease, and the landlord therefore lost rents for the months in which they had no notice of vacancy. Under these facts its not the landlords problem that you failed to communicate with your employee with regards to their vacating the property, and you would be held liable. Even if you claimed that the contract was not valid because the type or print was not big enough, the Court would strike the language, and it would still consider this to be a hold-over by you the tenant for the months in question, and you would still be liable.
Now the key issue may be a defense if the landlord was supposed to give you keys and not your employee, however I assume the landlord did give your employee keys and the employee failed to turn them over to you when they vacated which they should have done. I would recommend trying to settle with the landlord for an amount less than what you owe, because you will probably lose this case in Court. If you are sued, you can implead the employee into the case claiming that they are liable because they failed to give you notice of vacating, etc.. You may be able to make the employee liable for the rents!!
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