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Selling House?? What are my rights as the tenant?

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dixiedisco

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I posted another thread that we had asked our landlord to break our lease and asked what we could do and what terms they wanted.
She stated that they decided to sell the house rather than re rent it. I asked what that meant for us and she said when the house sold we could move. (obviously that is longer for us)

This is my question: we have a lot of family events in September and October and then of course the holidays.
We would prefer to move by August or stay until the end of the year which is the end of the lease agreement.

We had agreed to move all of our boxes out of the house etc so that it would be show ready. However we are renting a storage unit to do so.

If we decide to not break our lease (because she isn't giving us a time frame) what are we required to do by law?
Must we move all of our boxes out of the house? Or have it cleaned and show ready?

We keep all of our blinds closed so not to let the neighbers see in our house and they have requested that we keep them open.

We don't want to be unfair, but we don't want to be having to constantly clean/straighten up to show if we can't move when we find a house of our liking.
If we decide to remain through out our lease are we required to keep our house tidy? (I don't mean dirty filthy, put do I need to tidy up my sons toys/make beds every day etc?) or can we just live? And our house looks lived in?
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
You are being unfair. If you agreed to be out, get out. That modifies your lease. You demanded a modification which the owner gave you, and now you want to reneg.
 

Gail in Georgia

Senior Member
At this point, you need to do nothing to get the house ready to be shown. It was nice of you to move your boxes to a storage unit but legally you were not required to do that. You're also not required to make the beds, keep the blinds open, etc. just to make the place look better for potential buyers.

You need to be given adequate notice that the house will be shown. It's your option to be there or not; however, many tenants do like to be present when strangers are walking through the place. The place needs to be shown at reasonable times (i.e., not at 2 am in the morning).

If the house sells quickly and you do not wish to move, your lease would remain in effect until it would naturally expire.

Some new owners will offer a "buyout" to current tenants; offer them some financial renumeration to move earlier than the expiration date on the lease. Keep that in mind.

Gail
 

dixiedisco

Junior Member
Thanks for the replies.

We agreed to break our lease and they decided to sell the house. However, we need to have some sort of agreement of when the lease is terminated. We do not want to be in limbo waiting for the house to sell and then have to make a rash decision to secure another property.

Legally we are bound by the lease until Dec. 31, 2010. And so are they. I have asked to an amendment to the lease that would be fair to both parties. For example the lease that is currently in place would terminate as of Aug. 31st, 2010 and we would go to month to month terms requiring both parties to give 30 days notice of vacancy. However, the landlord does not want to give us any modifications to the lease and said when the house sells we can modify our lease agreement. That does not work for us because it keeps us in a state of limbo until the house sells. Then it would be determined how long we have to move out.

I'm not trying to be unfair. I just want to find an amicable solution that works for both parties. Not just them and not just us.

We need to give prospective properties a move in date and we cannot do that if we don't have that information from our current landlord.
 

acmb05

Senior Member
You are being unfair. If you agreed to be out, get out. That modifies your lease.
Not if the landlord did not get it in writing. To me it seems thew landlord is being unfair.

They want to go to a month to month lease but the landlord does not want to do it in writing because then the tenants could move at any time with proper notice and the landlord is stuck with an empty house trying to sell it. With the market the way it is it may not sell so the landlord wants to make sure the tenants cannot move till the end of the year. On the other side they also want to make sure that if it does sell that the tenant will move out.

They want it to be at their whim when the tenants lease is broken and the tenant wants it in writing. I think the landlord is being unfair.
 

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