Landlord says they need me to sign a lease because mine expired.

[harvey1261]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

Hi All.

Lived in current apartment for what will be two years in February. No issues at all. Lease expires 1/27/2024.

Purchased a home so will be moving out prior to lease expiring and was told I can "buyout" the lease, for $3,000.

Sent an email to give notice of my 60-day intent to vacate.

I then got a text message from the District Manager...it read "this is xxx from the office. We just did a file audit, and we realized that for your current lease term, it doesn't appear that you ever signed a lease as it had expired before your signatures were captured."

This was followed by a few frantic attempts to reach me...clearly someone in the office messed up.

I'm not in a hurry to sign anything at this point. Do we have a lease in tact, or not? If not, it'd be nice to move out without buying out the lease.

Anyone ever heard of this, or experience it?

Many thanks
H

 

[AlmostThere]

Do you have a copy of your fully executed lease? (Signed by both parties.) It sounds as if your landlord does not have that document.

Without it, I guess that you would be considered a month-to-month tenant. Now is the fun part. Are you better off exiting the lease as a lease holder or a month to month tenant?

 

[harvey1261]

I do not. According to them, there is not a copy that has my signature and their counter-signature.

 

[quincy]

I do not. According to them, there is not a copy that has my signature and their counter-signature.

Is there anything with just your signature? The counter signature is not necessary if the leasing office/owner is the one that drafted the lease. They agree with the terms because they were the ones who created the terms.

 

[harvey1261]

Is there anything with just your signature? The counter signature is not necessary if the leasing office/owner is the one that drafted the lease. They agree with the terms because they were the ones who created the terms.

Yes...though they say the signatures expired. They are after me hard to "sign" the new lease.

 

[quincy]

Yes...though they say the signatures expired. They are after me hard to "sign" the new lease.

When in your first post you say that your “lease expires 1/27/2024,” is that accurate? Did your lease in fact expire last February?

 

[harvey1261]

When in your first post you say that your “lease expires 1/27/2024,” is that accurate? Did your lease in fact expire last February?

Nope, 1/27/2025...my apologies.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

Hi All.

Lived in current apartment for what will be two years in February. No issues at all. Lease expires 1/27/2024.

Purchased a home so will be moving out prior to lease expiring and was told I can "buyout" the lease, for $3,000.

Sent an email to give notice of my 60-day intent to vacate.

I then got a text message from the District Manager...it read "this is xxx from the office. We just did a file audit, and we realized that for your current lease term, it doesn't appear that you ever signed a lease as it had expired before your signatures were captured."

This was followed by a few frantic attempts to reach me...clearly someone in the office messed up.

I'm not in a hurry to sign anything at this point. Do we have a lease in tact, or not? If not, it'd be nice to move out without buying out the lease.

Anyone ever heard of this, or experience it?

Many thanks
H

1/27/24 was last January. Did you mean 1/27/2025? If so, it is 10/31/2024 today, which means 60 days from today is 12/31/2024. That is just under a month until your lease expires if you meant 1/27/2025. How long ago did all of this take place? How much is your monthly rent? If the buyout isn't actually saving you anything, then you might as well keep access to the place until 1/27/2025 and not give them the opportunity to re-rent it on your dime.

 

[harvey1261]

1/27/24 was last January. Did you mean 1/27/2025? If so, it is 10/31/2024 today, which means 60 days from today is 12/31/2024. That is just under a month until your lease expires if you meant 1/27/2025. How long ago did all of this take place? How much is your monthly rent? If the buyout isn't actually saving you anything, then you might as well keep access to the place until 1/27/2025 and not give them the opportunity to re-rent it on your dime.

Rent is $2,000. I was actually thinking/hoping that there was some technicality that I could get out of the lease without paying the buyout. Given there is no "countersigned lease" and their persistence on having me sign this lease, I was just thinking it could work out that I could just walk away.

 

[adjusterjack]

Did you actually sign a renewal lease on paper on 1/31/2024 to expire 1/31/2025?

If not, it's likely that you went month to month when your original lease expired and only need to give one month notice.

They are after me hard to "sign" the new lease.

Well, obviously they can't make you sign a new lease. Just say no and there's nothing they can do about it.

 

[LdiJ]

Rent is $2,000. I was actually thinking/hoping that there was some technicality that I could get out of the lease without paying the buyout. Given there is no "countersigned lease" and their persistence on having me sign this lease, I was just thinking it could work out that I could just walk away.

That is unlikely to be possible. If you signed anything at all you are likely stuck, even if they are acting a bit frantic. However, there still would be absolutely no benefit on your end in signing anything now, since you have already given them 60 days notice. So, I certainly wouldn't sign anything.

A $3000 buyout is only a "deal" if after sixty days notice there would be two or more months remaining on the lease. You never did state the date when you gave them notice. Pay attention to the numbers. Make sure you aren't ending up paying more than you should with the "buyout".

I once had a landlord quote a buyout amount (on a commercial lease) that was significantly more than the amount of remaining rent through the expiration date of the lease. Needless to say we said never mind to the landlord about moving out early and just kept the unit until the end of the lease. We did actually move out early, but kept the unit until the end of the lease.

 

[quincy]

Rent is $2,000. I was actually thinking/hoping that there was some technicality that I could get out of the lease without paying the buyout. Given there is no "countersigned lease" and their persistence on having me sign this lease, I was just thinking it could work out that I could just walk away.

If your understanding was that your lease didn’t expire until 2025, it seems likely that you agreed to the one year extension of your original lease rather than agreeing to a month-to-month lease. Was there a rent increase in February 2024?

Whatever the case, if you gave a 60-day notice, that should get you through the end of December, leaving just one month remaining on your lease. The $3000 “buyout” seems unreasonable as it is more than a month’s rent.

 

[zddoodah]

was told I can "buyout" the lease, for $3,000.

Told by whom? Is that consistent with the terms of the lease? Or was this an offer made by your landlord? When do you intend to move out?

Do we have a lease in tact, or not?

You wrote that you received a text that said that "it doesn't appear that you ever signed a lease," but you told us that you did, in fact, sign. You also wrote that the person who texted you wrote that "it had expired before your signatures were captured," but I'm not sure what "it had expired" might mean (perhaps a reference to the DocuSign or other similar process?). All that being said, it sounds to me like both you and the landlord intended to sign a written lease and have been conducting yourselves in the belief that a signed, written lease exists. If so, I suspect that, if push came to shove, a court would rule that some technical defect in an electronic signing process does not invalidate the written lease.

it'd be nice to move out without buying out the lease.

Depending on the answers to the questions I asked, it's probably not worth getting into a fight, but it might give you some leverage to get a reduced buy-out.

they say the signatures expired.

Not sure what that means, but if you signed the lease, then you're on the hook.

 

[quincy]

For Docusign, the default expiration time for signatures is 3 days (which includes weekend days).

 

[FarmerJ]

If your current landlord cant find their copy of your lease that is on them , ( if you have a copy of the original lease go make a extra and mail it to them via confirmed mail delivery or certified mail) at this point even though you gave a notice to vacate there isnt much they can do until they find the signed original. If they try to take you to court claiming you owe them money for unpaid rent they will be expected to be able to prove it with a copy a lease in hand. SO if you re do your notice to make your vacate date to the end of the current lease yes you will have to pay but you can take your sweet time to go back in and clean it and take exit pictures showing how clean you left it inc the insides of oven, toilet bowls , sinks fridge, insides of cupboards etc