Our landlord is getting deployed at the end of August so his dad is taking over all his properties... not so bad because his dad is just as nice as our landlord... but he wants us to sign a lease until May... we had a year lease our first year and now have just been doing month to month... and while I don't really want to rush to find a place to move... I don't want to be locked into another lease... I have been half heartedly looking for something because we really do need something bigger... but I guess I am going to be searching more intently... boo!
so if anyone knows of any places for rent between Sanford and South Berwick that take cats and would fit 4 people... send them my way!
Re: bummed...
I wish I knew of places, but...
My suggestion is to be up front and tell him that you would rather continue what you are doing and that signed another lease after all this time would likely mean that you'd be looking for another place. If he realizes that you are not going to stay if you get forced in to a lease then he may be willing to reconsider rather than go a couple months without a tenant. There are TONS of houses around me for sale and many have started to rent them about. I'd be pretty leery, if I were him, of having a vacancy at this point if your real estate market is anything like where I am.
I thought Maine was a "tenant-at-will" state? So even if you have a year-lease, you don't actually have to be held to it...?
I'd be surprised if that were true. Even Massachusetts, which has crazy pro-tenant laws, allows leases.
I'm pretty sure it's true. And it's not that tenant-at-will doesn't allow leases-- tenant-at-will allows you to get out of a lease early.
I'll look it up again...
"tenant at will" means that you are renting without a lease. It offers you some protections despite your lack of a written agreement with the landlord. If you have a lease, you are held to the terms.
You're a tenant at will if you don't have a lease (aka a month-to-month renter). If you have a lease, then then lease terms govern.
Yep. I'm checking with a lawyer friend of mine. I can't remember where I found the info about Maine not requiring tenants to stick to a lease. I remember being shocked.
Either way, maybe you can talk to your landlord about respecting the month-to-month deal you guys had with his son? I mean, it's kind of a preexisting agreement you had with the son-- so his father *should* honour that. Kind of like when you buy a house that already has a tenant in it, you have to honour the preexisting lease (as long as it's not a month-to-month).