State Specific Question About: OHIO (OH)

Thanks in advance for any response. I am a new landlord and we are in Ohio.

We rented our old house to a tenant with one year lease, which expires last May. After that, they wanted to extend the lease for one more year and we agreed, without signing a new lease. So the new term will expires May this year. In the original lease, there is a paragraph,

"After the initial lease term expires, occupancy will be on the month to month bases, until such time as tenant provides Ninety (90) days notice of intent to terminate such lease. Owner will give Ninety (90) days notice of any increase in rent during the carry-over period."

Last week, they suddenly notice us that they need to move out in one month because they bought a house. I told them there was such 90 day notice requirement. And tried to ask them to pay one more month rent for compensation but they didn't agree.

My plan was to sell this house after they move out. However, winter is not a good time to list a house and we are busy on other stuff now. So their decision brings us some trouble.

So is small claims court my only choice? What is the chance to win it on court?

Warning: I have no experience in Ohio law.

There are a few issues here.

First, your oral agreement to extend the lease for one year (until May 2015) is probably not worth the paper it is not written on. As a general rule, contracts for real estate with a term of one year or more must be in writing.

Assuming that the oral one year extension is not valid, the next question is if the Tenants have to give 90 Day Notice. Your lease provides that after the one year is up, it converts to a Month-To-Month, but it also purports to require a 90 day notice. This seems to me to be inconsistent. Because I think that by definition, a M-T-M requires only 30 days notice. So which is it, a M-T-M or a 90 day?

If the lease contains inconsistent provisions, the lease will probably be interpreted AGAINST the LL who created the inconsistency, and in favor of the innocent T.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think you are not entitled to hold the T to the 90 day notice provision.

Thanks for the input.

My understanding is, from Jun 2014 to May 2015, they can choose to terminate the lease at any month. But they have to give us 90 day notice. This is still M-T-M.

Amcom,

What you may have on your hands is an invalid lease provision. As Mike45 said, you can write whatever you want on a lease and have a tenant sign it, but if state law says M-2-M lease requires only 30 days notice, that trumps your lease language. I agree with Mike that your lease appears to contradict itself. Your lease sounds more a like a 'quarter to quarter' vs. M-2-M.

Regardless of whether or not the wording contradicts itself, it's time to find out what your state's LAW says about you requiring 90 days notice. There is a link in the upper left corner of this page "Landlord/Tenant State Laws."

Happy reading.

Good advice above. Once it is vacant, you have some time to pretty it up before putting it on the market.

Good luck.

now is a perfect time to sell a house, not to many on the marketing, interest rates good, and property on the raise, people are out there looking, not much to look at!

Give up the 90 day, you are holding them hostage, just let it go, you can think/feel/believe but as written above you would still be wrong in court. You are creating a situation that will hold you bitter. BE HAPPY for the family that has paid you all this time, kept your property in good shape and now can become homeowners, let the rest go. Don't forget what being a homeowner has met to you. Just let it go, and keep moving forward.

I would ask them to put in in writing, as many homes don't close and if it doesn't close and they hold over - in Missouri they now have to pay double rent. ASK THEM TO PUT IN IN WRITING, the date, the move out date, their last day, when keys will be returned.

"amcon", I feel not quite as generous as some others here. That's probably because in Ontario Canada tenants can break their lease with usually no consequences, in fact our LL/tenant laws encourage such behaviour.

Having said that, check you local LL/tenant laws. If it says 30 days then you may not have any grounds to pursue it.

However check the law CAREFULLY. Our rental rules say the notice doesn't START until the first day of the coming month. If you laws have the same condition, you might be entitled to more than 30 days.

These tenants are buying a house. IF you have grounds to pursue them, you could put a lien on their new home, or perhaps even contact to their lender or real estate agent before closing and let them know court action is coming. Lenders here will not be happy to start a new mortgage knowing their lender is about to be sued. It could stop the purchase of their new home.

Assuming that your rental period runs from the 1st of the month to the last day, then tenants under a MTM arrangement are required to give you notice on or before the 1st day of the final month for which they'll be living on the property. So if I correctly understand your situation, that the tenants gave notice after the 1st of January, then your tenants are responsible for rent through next month, February.