Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in North Carolina
My girlfriend's family currently rents a house. There is no lease on the house as far as I know, they just pay month by month. Over a month ago the heating system in the house broke and being that the temperatures have been getting down to the mid to low 20's, they obviously can't stay there. Now that the landlord is having a new heating system installed, she has informed them that if they choose to continue staying there, the rent will be increased by almost $200 a month (I guess to cover the cost of the new heating system that she's put off installing for years). They of course don't like this and want to find another place to live but the landlord has given them a date of January 29th, today is the 15th, to have all of their possesions completly moved out if they choose not to stay. I understand that there is no lease but isn't there some kind of legal provision that would stop her from giving them only two weeks to find another home?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Okay - the first question would be was there ever a lease? If so, you need to look at the lease to see what it says about holdover periods and notice.
If there is no lease or if the original lease didn't say anything, the next question is what type of lease did the parties enter into? In other words, are you sure that it was a month to month or was it a year to year (even if there is no written lease). This is a critical distinction. If it was a month to month, the next question is when does the month start and end. Is it the first of the month or the 15th or some other date? It is true that the landlord can give you one weeks notice if this is a month to month. So if the month started January 1st, then the landlord can ask you to move out by February 1st anytime prior to January 24th.
From a practical perspective, the landlord cannot lock you out on the January 29th. If additional time is needed to find a place, then if the tenant stays on the premises, the landlord will need to bring a summary ejectment action to regain possession which should give the tenant another 30 days or so from the time the landlord brings the action. The best thing to do is to work out a reasonable time with the landlord but if the landlord refuses to budge, the tenant could always just force the landlord to bring a summary ejectment action and this would give them additional time. However, it could affect things like a credit report.
- Jeff
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