Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania
The original lease that I signed for my apartment stated that if no notice of termination was extended by either party before the 90 required notice period, then the tenant would automatically begin a month-to-month tenancy, during which a 30-day notice of termination was required to vacate. There was another clause that said if, at least 5 days before this 90-day notice period commenced, either party proposed changes to either rent or lease contract changes, that these changes would commence on a month-to-month basis at the end of the original term (even without the tenant's signature).
There is no mention, whatsoever, of the original contract being able to renew itself for a year.
An automatic renewal was evidently sent to me exactly 5 days before the 90-day period. I never received this notification. They gave me 14 days to respond (as I found out recently from a printed copy of the mysterious renewal form) and informed me that a lack of response meant that the renewal would automatically go into effect at the end of the original 1 year term. Of course, since I never received this notice of renewal, I was surprised to find that they had renewed my contract for another year. Having called the office twice to confirm that I was in (as the original lease stated) a month-to-month tenancy with required 30 days notice, I was confident that I needed only to give written notification of my departure a month in advanced.
I went to delivery this notification and was met with claims that my lack of response to lease contract changes was taken as a negative affirmative.
My question is this: the lease says that Lease Contract Changes are allowed up to 5 days before the 90 day notice period, but then it continues on to say that these changes will continue on a "month-to-month" basis. It seems here that the office would have had to send me an amendment to the lease, modifying the above statement to say "Lease contract changes are allowed up to 5 days before the 90 day notice period, and these changes will continue for a year-long term." Once this contract change is made, then it seems they could legally send me an automatic year long lease renewal. However, since they did not amend the original language of the lease, isn't it true that their automatic renewal for a term not mentioned in the lease was unlawful?
1 Answer from Attorneys
I would need to see the lease. The leases usually contain a holdover provision which states that leases can renew on a month-to-month tenancy subject to all other terms of the lease. However, it is not illegal for the lease to provide for automatic renewal for one or more year (usually commercial are longer and with residential it is for one year). What they did was not unlawful. Many contracts (like health club contracts and security system contracts) have auto-renew features. Maybe it was unethical, but not unlawful per se.
Couple of options - there is no right to break a lease. Do you have another person who would like to be a tenant? If so, see if the landlord will accept that person, In such case, there would be no damages as the landlord has a duty to re-rent the property. Option 2 is to offer the landlord 2 months' rent in exchange for you terminating the lease. Or check the lease itself to see if there is a provision like this in the lease. If so, get it in writing and signed by the landlord and you that you agree to terminate the lease. Pa. does allow wage garnishment if the landlord sues you for unpaid rent and gets a judgment so don't just leave.
Before you surrender possession of the property, clean the apartment (make it Girl Scout clean, i.e. better than you found it) and fix any damage, like nail holes in the wall. Take pictures. Then schedule a move-out inspection with the landlord and get a copy of the move out inspection sheet. Get the landlord to sign that. You should sign too. Surrender the keys and make sure that the landlord has your forwarding address so that they can return your security deposit.
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