Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Moving out after expired lease

Our lease expired and prior to the end of the lease we gave a verbal commitment to sign another lease. It states in the agreement that we must give 60 days notice prior to moving out. Three months after this verbal commitment, and one month after lease expiration we had still not recieved a new lease, there is no month to month clause in our agreement. We paid for the month after the lease, then two of my roomates decided that they no longer wanted to sign a new lease and moved out. I could no longer afford the rent myself and moved out as well after giving 1 months notice. The landlord refuses to return the security deposit saying that we did not give 60 days notice. However our original agreement was fulfilled and she accepted money from us for rent after the completion of our original lease. Can we get our security deposit back and how do we go about it?


Asked on 12/18/04, 1:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrew Nitzberg Andrew Nitzberg & Associates

Re: Moving out after expired lease

This is a classic 'statute of frauds' case. A written agreement related to the rental of real property must be in writing and all modifications must also be in writing. This is the law.

When you continued after the termination of the lease, one of two situations occurred. Either you renewed the old lease or you entered into a month-to-month lease whereby you were required to give 30 days notice.

Since there was a promise of a new lease with different terms, there was clearly no renewal of the old lease. You were, by law, on a month-to-month lease which you might terminate at any time with 30 days notice. You have a right to a 100% return of the security deposit.

Inconveniently, the landlord is requiring you to take leagl action to secure the money from him.

As an aside, you may include in your legal action a petition for your legal fees.

You are welcome to a consultation for no fee.

Read more
Answered on 12/20/04, 1:31 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Landlord & Tenants questions and answers in New York