Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Re: tenant legal rights

If your landlord has the right to terminate the lease on thirty days notice, the lack of available housing is not a defense to failure to vacate. However, if your Landlord's notice was delivered to you after the first of the month, the thirty day notice will run from the first of day of the next complete month. Example: notice is delivered on August 10th, thirty notice period runs from September 1.

If you received timely notice, you will be a tenant holding over. The landlord will have rights to evict you, but he or she must proceed through the courts and the time involved will take longer than the one day that you have described in you question.

The landlord may have the right to claim additional rent from you based upon your failure to vacate, especially if that failure causes him to lose a tenant.

Tell your landlord of the available apartment and ask if there is any way to work around the one day time period. This may involve obtaining a statement from your new landlord that the property to which you plan to move will, in fact, be available on the first of September. If your landlord knows that you will be out of the property by a certain time, he or she may be more willing to work with you.