Nice place you've got there.. hate to see something happen to it!

December 11, 2010 3:43 PM

My lease doesn't end for another 7.5 months, and I just got a letter today from the landlord requesting I renew the lease by the 20th. Is this normal?

I suppose it's legal, but is it usual?

This is a college town, and I'm planning on moving to a bigger apt, but I'm curious what motivates this and how people make an informed decision when there's not many apartments advertised yet for August. Do they just ignore these notices?

posted by pwnguin to work & money (20 answers total)

It's a request, not a demand, right?

It's a recession and there are lots of new landlords in the college rental game due to the cheaper houses and foreclosures that have been readily available. They are just trying to lock down their income stream for next semester/year. Larger companies sometimes offer a "best price guarantee" if you sign up early, you are guaranteed to get the best rate they may eventually offer to fill their units. For a smaller landlord - they are just looking to cover the mortgage consistently and unless it's on paper - college students without backing from Mommy and Daddy are less than reliable.
posted by emjay at 3:48 PM on December 11, 2010

It was totally common in my college town. You had to start looking for place in Feb for the following year. Very annoying.
posted by fshgrl at 3:49 PM on December 11, 2010 [3 favorites]

Seconding fshgrl.
posted by vincele at 3:55 PM on December 11, 2010

+1 fshgrl--this was the norm in every college town I've lived in. My option was to renew in January or risk them renting the apartment out from under me. The upside was that since all of the landlords did that, you could start looking for apartments around the same time and figure out if there's a better alternative
posted by parkerjackson at 4:00 PM on December 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is how they did it in Champaign-Urbana. It was always a huge pain. I think it's common college town procedure.
posted by MsMolly at 4:17 PM on December 11, 2010

In a college town, HELL YES. I have to decide in mid-March what I'm doing until September of the next year. Sucks donkey balls, but there it is. If you don't say yes, you're gonna get the boot from your apartment whether you want to leave or not.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:21 PM on December 11, 2010

Yup, this was the story when I lived in Gainesville, Florida, too. Every year around December I'd be asked if I was renewing my August lease.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:29 PM on December 11, 2010

Wow. Okay. I guess as a follow up, this 6+ months advance notice is only standard practice in college towns? I assume the cyclical nature of demand is a major motivator, but it also means they're not advertising just yet. Maybe next month, but probably more like May. Browsing craigslist but it's mostly subleasers who deployed / graduated in Dec.
posted by pwnguin at 5:06 PM on December 11, 2010

If they want your answer by December 20, they'll know which units will be available for rental and can start advertising them after the first of the year.
posted by shiny blue object at 5:12 PM on December 11, 2010

As a data point, as a six-time renter and now landlord in a fairly major college town (Denton, TX... UNT/TWU) I've neer encountered this, nor have I asked renters to do this.
posted by cmoj at 5:27 PM on December 11, 2010

I think it's a combination of a strong renting cycle (other places always have availabilities coming up and a limited number of people looking for a place) plus a strong seller's market where the renters are competing with each other for the good apartments. If all the college students agreed not to look until April, then you could safely ignore the letter and wait to sign a lease without risking someone else signing the lease. But since everyone is on the market at the same time and they have gradually agreed to sign leases earlier and earlier, college towns have just gotten into that cycle.

The exception to the rule (in Iowa City, anyway) was grad housing. You could wait to sign leases until April or so and still have good options-- (a) because incoming students are only just deciding then and (b) there's no culture around getting the best place and signing early. There was much more mid-year turnover in the grad student part of town and last year we waited until June to sign anything.
posted by parkerjackson at 5:28 PM on December 11, 2010

Seconding parkerjackson - I too was in Iowa City, and my landlord wanted us to resign by the end of November (a full eight months early!) Yes, grad student housing was easier, but if you had specific requirements (I was looking for cat friendly and cheap cheap cheap) you still had to jump on it ASAP.
posted by captainawesome at 6:01 PM on December 11, 2010

Sounds like Madison, WI... I ignored my landlord as long as I could, but he had a renter sign the next lease in March (to start August 15th). It was a headache, especially since I didn't know if I would even be in the same city at the end of my lease. It also made subleasing a problem when I did move out of state, since no one wanted an unfurnished apartment for part of the summer with no option to renew/sign the lease. Good luck.
posted by Maarika at 6:28 PM on December 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

It may be common practice, but you can check with City Hall or Legal Aid to see if it's legal. Also, read your lease to see what it says about renewal.
posted by theora55 at 7:08 PM on December 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

I've read the lease quite carefully, nothing in it about converting month to month or anything on the subject of renewal.
posted by pwnguin at 8:45 PM on December 11, 2010

In Bloomington, IN, I was once asked whether I would be renewing (though not "asked to renew", per se) two months into a twelve-month lease.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:59 PM on December 11, 2010

Theora55 is right that it would be worthwhile checking with your university's legal aid office or some kind of tenants rights organization.

In Ann Arbor, for example, a few years ago the city passed an ordinance that limited how early a landlord could require a tenant to declare their intentions for the following year. Some landlords still ask earlier than that date, but they can't really "force" their tenants to answer.
posted by JumpW at 10:01 PM on December 11, 2010

My lease isn't up until the end of August each year, but my landlords always ask me to renew in Jan/Feb. I live in an area where a lot of students live and they do a lot of rentals to them, so it makes sense.
posted by itsacover at 6:21 AM on December 12, 2010

I thought about this a little more and it makes no sense beyond a little bit of security in knowing that you've already got a renter when the next lease cycle comes around. The thing is the whole point of renting (from the landlord's perspective) in a college town is that there will always be renters. In my experience so far (all if it during the current depression, too) it's probably taken an average of three days from Craigslist to signed lease. I don't know why someone would bother.
posted by cmoj at 9:25 AM on December 12, 2010

I think part of it is advertising and planning.

The other thing might be fears of rates falling. Right now I live in a fairly expensive complex, not the most expensive, but not even close to the cheapest in town. But even when I was living in the ... undergrad slums... the landlord was always hounding us to sign on in January. But at least that contract was over in May.

There's also a brand new rental inspections process in town that starts in January. I don't plan to sign anything until those are published, as it should be an interesting storm. It'll probably end up taking stuff off the market, possibly condemning a few buildings, and raise rates a bit, but it might also get landlords to improve their property and increase the quantity of apartments I'd consider acceptable, so it's a wash really.
posted by pwnguin at 10:38 AM on December 12, 2010