I have a tenant whose lease expires on 9/30/19. I am not renewing their lease and their term will end on 9/30. I do not want to provide written notice to my tenant now of my intent not to renew the lease, however, I do want it documented somehow that this is my intention as of this date (3/18/19).

There are currently no serious issues with the tenant, but I am concerned about the potential for things to escalate between now and September. If issues arise between now and September, I do not want the tenant to file a retaliation claim saying that I didn't renew the lease because of xyz compliant they filed.

I have the letter to the tenant drafted, my question is this...….can I sign the letter and have it notarized to prove when wrote the letter...….basically that I made the decision not to renew the lease before any tenant filed complaints to prove it was not in response to any action by the tenant?

The letter was created on xxxx date....Your complaint or issue arose on xxxx date, which occurred after the letter was drafted...….so it is not retaliation.

Thoughts???? How can I memorialize somewhere that this was my intention as of 3/18/19?

Thanks,

Jason

Why? In what way would this work to your benefit.

A 30 day notice is ok in many some areas and may be spelled out in your lease.

Check your state law. Generally 60 days is the max.

Sending a copy to yourself today probably isn't worth very much. The tenant could argue that you do that with every tenant, and then you cherry pick those where you have retaliated to give yourself cover.

Legally, since this is a (presumably fixed-term) you do not need to give any notice at all. However, you don't really want anyone to be surprised on the day that the lease expires.

But I understand very well that you may want to document your intention to release this tenant. An example might be the doctrine of retaliatory eviction, if they have that in NY. Even if they don't have it on the books, the doctrine is pretty well established in the US by now.

How to document? The only real way is to give irrevocable notice now. Anything else will be seen as phony. But anyway, even that will not really help you in court against a charge of retaliatory eviction.

In short, you have no way to proceed except to accept whatever circumstances will happen and to deal with them in a straightforward manner, including accepting the possibility that you may fail to be able to show a previous intent.

I'd think you're more in the "notice to cure" territory right now than any non renewal paperwork.

I get what your doing and why. It's a CYA thing.

Without the real reason as to why-- better to lie to tenant. Find a good cover story -- but don't forget it.

My mom's moving back 0or my sister or inlaws.

You want to send it now then you need a story as to why.

You have been one of my best tenants and feel obligated to give you as much notice to find a new place as possible. I will not be able to consider renewing your lease. So in order for you to prepare (and in fact if you need to leave 30 days earlier) I'm sending you this notice WAY in advance.

I like the idea of talking to a lawyer, have them draw up notes about nonrenewing a tenant and then pay his bill.