The lease my tenants signed says:

Commencement date - April 28, 2018

Term - A period of 12 months commencing on the Commencement Date and ending at 12 PM on 3/31/2019

Termination - Tenant must provide Landlord at least 60 days written notice... Failure to provide timely notice of intent to terminate this Lease may subject Tenant to liability or additional Rent...

The renter paid a pro-rated rent for the last 3 days of April and May was his 1st full month.

I believe both the tenant and I were interpreting the lease as 12 months starting on April 28th, 2018 and going through April 2019. And that we were pro-rating before the 12 months of the lease started... not pro-rating within the first month. It says the 12 months starts on the Commencement Date which is April 28. So 12 months after that takes you through April 2019.

I believe my tenant also expects the lease to end at April 28th because he e-mailed me asking of Feb 28th was the cutoff day for the 60 day notice.

My question is this... can I legally expect my tenant to pay rent through April? Or can they give me notice before March starts and move out before the end of March? If they gave me notice now and moved out in March, that wouldn't be the 60 days notice listed in the Termination condition. So can I use that as a basis to force April's rent?

Thanks,

So you're saying there is a contradiction in your lease? If so, I'd say they could move on the 28th and not pay for the 28th-31st...or at least they'd be able to argue this in court if it came to that.

But if the lease end date is March 31st, and they don't give 60 day notice, then can I hold them to the 60 day notice and keep them paying rent through April?

If not, then what is the point of requiring that the tenant give 60 day notice.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it appears you created a conflict in your lease. It could be interpreted as...

Lease commencement - April 28th

Term - 12 months

Therefore, as a tenant, I INFERRED a lease end date of April 28th 2019. As such, I should give you notice on Feb 28th 2019, and be able to move out April 28th 2019.

If you want to be "tough" and try to force payment until the end of the month, go ahead. But you may be opening yourself up for...

1) An angry tenant who would damage or otherwise not care for the property in the meantime...

or

2) A trip to court to discuss/fight this

=Your lease is a little ambiguous, so if landlord and tenant cannot resolve it, then a judge will have to make his interpretation.

The judge will hear testimony from the parties as to what their understanding was of the lease. If the tenant testifies that his understanding was commencement on April 28, 2018 and termination on 3/31/2019 at 12 pm, then I would expect a good judge to interpret the 12 month term to be an approximation and thus disregard it because sufficient information is already available. So the lease would run from April 28, 2018 to 3.31.2019 at 12 pm.

Generally, under real property law, a lease terminates upon its expiration, and no notice is required. If no further arrangements are made then the tenancy may continue on a MTM basis with the same terms except for termination date, if and only if both parties are agreeable,

For details of required notice, check you local state law, but generally a lease terminates upon expiration.

If I were you, I would exchange paperwork with the tenant making clear what you both expect about the terms and dates of the lease,

If I had to chose between a vague "12 months" (april thru march) and an actual ending date and time, I would think the actual ending date and time would be the correct one. You also have written, "termination of lease" -- the natural end date would be March 31 at midnight. Is there really a termination of lease or a non renewal?