Lease renewal automatic?

[molly91]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

Hello. I have been renting an apartment for 2.5 years and am moving to a different state. I had signed a lease for the first year of renting but none thereafter, but have been paying rent monthly just as required by the original lease. My landlady has told me that I am responsible for rent for the remaining half of this year since that by remaining in the apartment, I am a tenant at will, which means I have automatically renewed my lease per the terms in my original lease.

There is no "automatic renewal" clause in my lease, nor does it give me any verbage about notice for renewal and everything refers to "the terms of this lease" which explicits lists the beginning and end date of that first year. It does say that if I remain on the premises without renewing a lease that the landlord may evict me or cease my possessions.

Does PA law say that my lease is automatically renewed if I haven't resigned a lease even if my lease does not explicitly say that it is renewed? Do I owe my landlady the remaining 6 months rent?

Also, if she is pursuing this (and possible misunderstanding "the law"), how can I ensure that I receive my security deposit back?

[ecmst12]

PA law says that if automatic renewal is not specifically stated in the lease, then at the end of the term, it converts to month-to-month under the same terms as the original lease. Show your landlord [url]http://tenant.net/Other_Areas/Penn/harris/pa-toc.html[/url] and tell her all you have to give is 30 days written notice, encompassing at least one full rental period, to terminate your month to month agreement.

[niceguy9]

This is very timely! I'm having a similar problem, also in PA. Ecmst12, I read closely the Tenant-Landlord Handbook. Thanks for posting that link. However, I don't see where it says a lapsed lease converts to month-by-month and the tenant is only required to give 30 days notice to vacate. I don't believe those conditions are stated in that handbook. If you know of another reference where this is given explicitly, please share. I would greatly appreciate it as it would clear up misconceptions my landlord has.

[ecmst12]

Try Google. PA laws are sparse and hard to find on the web. It's been a couple of years since I researched it and I don't remember where I finally found it.

[niceguy9]

From Wikipedia ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_legal_codes):[/url]

"Because of alleged copyright issues, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not post its statutes on-line. All other states and the District of Columbia do."



I'm not giving up but this does help explain the paucity of reliable information...

[niceguy9]

Hi again-

FindLaw.com has a state-by-state chart of tenant-landlord codes here: ttp://realestate.findlaw.com/tenant/tenant-resources/tenant-state-laws.html

...

For Pennsylvania, then, relevant statutes are here: 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. §§ 250.101 to .510-B, §§ 399.1 to .18

...

I think I am going to my county law library tomorrow. Thanks all for the help.

[jules581]

Did either of you ever figure out the answer to this question? I have the same situation, also in Pennsylvania.
Thank you.

[FarmerJ]

If you cannot find them online you can allways go to your local library and see if the librarian can help you find them, OR try county govt center , go to the clerk of the court or any help desk and ask them if they can find some one that can tell you what the statute numbers are for statutes that are for residential rental housing and if they can tell you the number grouping to search then ask them if you can look it up in the law library they have right there in the courthouse. Your county courts will have a alw library that is paid for by taxpayer dollars so they will have the information , If they try to tell you NO then put your foot down and do not back down , all taxpayers in your county paid for those books so it is public information. they just wont have a librarian to assist you.

[ecmst12]

If the lease does not specifically state that it renews for a specific term, then it does not. You become a month to month renter because that's what ALL renters are in PA when there is no fixed term lease in force. The fact that the rest of the terms remain the same I *suspect* is decided by case law.....in most cases a judge will uphold the rest of the terms of the contract provided they don't conflict with state law. For example, if your lease requires 60 days notice to terminate, then even after the term expires you will *most likely* still be held to the 60 days if it goes to court. Same with any other rules or conditions. If there's not a reason to NOT uphold them, most courts will say that you agreed to those terms when you moved in so they still apply.

I'm not aware of any state where a lease would automatically renew for any fixed term when it is NOT specifically stated in the lease. In fact, in some states, auto renewals are illegal altogether.