When you say 60 days you mean 35 is ok, right?

July 24, 2010 9:10 AM

Landlord/tenant filter: Providing somewhat later than required notice that I'm moving out. How to approach & what should I/can I offer?

I'm moving out of my apartment in Philadelphia at the end of August when the lease is up. During a very busy summer, I thought the lease required 30 days notice of not renewing, so I could provide notice now and be ok. However, when I finally read the lease, it was actually 60 days, such that I should have provided notice by July 1 -- which I obviously did not do.

My landlords have always been very helpful, responsive, and chill during my year here, so I think they'll be ok when I tell them I'm moving out, but I do want to have some responses/offers ready, e.g. offering to help them find a new tenant if they point out my notice was late, a small/nominal fee, etc. Has anyone been in this situation before, and if so, what did you do?

Any additional tactics or experiences since this questions was posted in 2005?

posted by midatlanticwanderer to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Assuming the contract is not flawed in some way (e.g. Philadelphia doesn't mandate 30 days), you are legally obliged to fulfil it, and that means paying rent for August and September.

Assuming they notice that you're attempting to breach your contract (which they probably will, no matter how chill they seem) then you can offer to help find a tenant and see if that gets you anywhere, or offer to move out a week or two earlier than you planned, but still pay for all of August, which may be useful for them if they have a particularly keen tenant waiting. Whether or not being apologetic and extra-accommodating/pro-active help will depend on your relationship with them. But you'll notice how that question in 2005 worked out. No matter how nice they are, if you offer to pay a "nominal" fee any smaller than the rent for September (which is what your contract requires) then they will laugh at you.

There are a couple of slightly shadier options which might leave you open to legal action, but which don't leave you out of pocket for September: (i) sub-letting for that month. How serious a problem this would be depends on local law and the nature of your rental agreement (ii) if you've damaged the property and don't expect to get your deposit back anyway, just leave at the end of August and don't pay September's rent.
posted by caek at 9:33 AM on July 24, 2010

Five weeks is lots of time for the landlords to find a new tenant, so I'm thinking that if you just talk to them about it they'll say it's not a problem unless they can't get the place rented. And the odds are very good that they will be able to.
posted by orange swan at 10:25 AM on July 24, 2010

Response by poster: Just talked to him, and they're pretty chill -- neither of us mentioned it, but you're right, orange swan, five weeks is a decent amount of time.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 11:18 AM on July 24, 2010