Rental Agreement vs Lease, legal differences.

[sophocles01]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

So got a weird one I wasn't able to figure out on my own and was hoping someone could shed light on it. I just moved to a new property and signed a "two-year rental agreement" with a property management company hired by the owner of the property.

I recently received notice that they were changing the terms of my rental agreement to include an administrative fee if we decide to renew at the end of the rental agreement. Being the sort of person I am and found this little gem in my rental agreement

"Entire Agreement: This Lease contains all the agreements promises and understandings of the parties and understandings of the parties hereto, and no oral agreement, promise or understanding of any kind shall be binding. All additions, variations, or modification of this Lease shall be valid and effective online in writing and signed by parties hereto."

If I am reading this correctly, and went through the rest of their "Rental Agreement" (Even though it refers to itself as a lease, the two are not interchangeable to my understanding), any changes to the terms have to be signed of by the Tenant, me.

So I did a little research and found that Rental Agreements are month to month contracts that renew on some set basis. Now my "Rental Agreement" / "Lease" will renew automatically after two years, but I would imagine that there is a term limit on the Rental agreements to be a maximum of "X" time frame.

Anyway,

Tl;DR my landlord surrogate uses rental agreement and lease interchangeably in my rental contract, and is trying to change the terms when it explicitly states (at least to my perception) that it would need to be approved by both parties. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

So got a weird one I wasn't able to figure out on my own and was hoping someone could shed light on it. I just moved to a new property and signed a "two-year rental agreement" with a property management company hired by the owner of the property.

I recently received notice that they were changing the terms of my rental agreement to include an administrative fee if we decide to renew at the end of the rental agreement. Being the sort of person I am and found this little gem in my rental agreement

"Entire Agreement: This Lease contains all the agreements promises and understandings of the parties and understandings of the parties hereto, and no oral agreement, promise or understanding of any kind shall be binding. All additions, variations, or modification of this Lease shall be valid and effective online in writing and signed by parties hereto."

If I am reading this correctly, and went through the rest of their "Rental Agreement" (Even though it refers to itself as a lease, the two are not interchangeable to my understanding), any changes to the terms have to be signed of by the Tenant, me.

So I did a little research and found that Rental Agreements are month to month contracts that renew on some set basis. Now my "Rental Agreement" / "Lease" will renew automatically after two years, but I would imagine that there is a term limit on the Rental agreements to be a maximum of "X" time frame.

Anyway,

Tl;DR my landlord surrogate uses rental agreement and lease interchangeably in my rental contract, and is trying to change the terms when it explicitly states (at least to my perception) that it would need to be approved by both parties. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Any changes to an already-signed agreement (a rental agreement is a lease) must be agreed to by all parties to the agreement.

 

[sophocles01]

Thank you very much for you quick reply. That is what I had expected but wanted another set of eyes on it just to be sure. I've sent off notice to the management company politely and professional stating that my understanding of the situation was maybe unclear, but laid out the situation as I saw it. Thank you for verification. It is dearly appreciated.

 

[quincy]

You're welcome.

 

[Zigner]

That doesn't mean they can't charge a fee for you to renew in (a little less than) two years. That would be part of the new agreement.

 

[BL]

Now my "Rental Agreement" / "Lease" will renew automatically after two years, but I would imagine that there is a term limit on the Rental agreements to be a maximum of "X" time frame.

Your rental agreemen can auto renew , or I gather you could give proper notice if you do not want to , including the fee.

 

[Zigner]

Your rental agreemen can auto renew , or I gather you could give proper notice if you do not want to , including the fee.

If you are suggesting that a unilateral change in the terms of the existing contract is allowed, then you are wrong.

 

[BL]

If you are suggesting that a unilateral change in the terms of the existing contract is allowed, then you are wrong.

I did not imply that at all.

Even you said the administration fee woukld be valid , but may that's wrong too upon automatic renewals.

 

[Zigner]

I did not imply that at all.

Even you said the administration fee woukld be valid , but may that's wrong too upon automatic renewals.

You worded your prior post strangely, which made it seem that, if the OP gave notice at the end of the current lease, then s/he would be on the hook for the fee that is not currently in the contract.

What *I* said was that the fee can be included in FUTURE rental agreements (upon renewal), but can't be added to the CURRENT rental agreement unless, of course, the OP agrees to it being added.

I think we're on the same page here

 

[FarmerJ]

a fee to renew LOL that's a good one, Personally I think they've been smoking their morning coffee, it cost LLs less money to let reasonably good tenants renew even with a minor rent increase since LL wont have any expenses to do anything at all to re rent the same unit and there is less so called wear and tear when tenants stay. Yes this LL can ask for that fee in the future , cant say Id want to pay it since I sort of wonder what other crazy crap this LL would want to include in future renewals.