Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New Jersey

Re: Tenants gave 3 weeks notice they were moving

Assuming that the lease itself is silent on the matter of renewal and holdover, the tenants are considered to be holding over on a month-to-month basis. That means that if they stay even one day beyond the current term, they owe for an additional month. Assuming that you consent to the holdover, they can stay for that month, but unless the lease says so, you don't have to consent and they still owe the rent. It is a little trickier to say whether your right to fees other than the rent continue to accrue and whether you can collect your attorney fees if you have to evict. That depends on what the lease says and whether it says it correctly.

Generally, holdovers don't give notice and don't have to. The lease could change that.

If you have rent in advance and a security deposit, you can draw against that for a holdover in the same way as you could if they left at the end of the lease term.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

Re: Tenants gave 3 weeks notice they were moving

I agree with John, that once the lease was converted into month-to-month (which presumes the original lease was silent on what happens when it ended), the tenant has to give you 30-days advance notice to terminate. If you are holding security, you could take the missing month's rent payment from it, plus the costs of repairing any damages caused by the tenant. If the security is short to cover these items, you can sue for the difference. The notice must be 30 full days in advance, so if they did not give you notice before the first of the month, you could, technically, hold the tenant for 2 months' rent. This is a responce to an Internet question and the reply is not intended to be legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship. Omitted facts could result in a different response.