This is going to vary greatly by your local judge and court system, unfortunately. Evicting for any reason other than non-payment is always a pain -- and even moreso when the tenant has done nothing wrong (i.e. evicting for a lease violation is harder than non-payment, but still easier than just "the lease has ended").

So, I don't think anyone can answer your question unless they use your local court system, sorry.

Let us know how it goes on Monday! I'm very curious what sort of timeframe they give them.

Why do you want them out?

- John...

John, I am curious about what you mean by your first paragraph. In what way do you find it difficult to evict for "lease has ended"?

In preparing for that situation (which has not yet manifested but may this summer), my plan is to end a 30 day notice prior to end of lease that tells the tenant that on the day their lease expires, the rent doubles to $2000. Then if they are still there, I can evict for non-payment of rent .

From my experience here and on other sites, it is generally agreed upon by most LLs that the easiest thing to evict for is non-payment. Because it isn't really subjective at all. For everything else, way too much discretion is left up to a judge. If you are evicting for a lease violation, he might want to give them more time to correct it, for example. If you are evicting because a lease has ended, he could easily go "Well, in this state, it defaults to a month-to-month and they appear to be paying -- so what is the problem?"

In any case, your solution seem to agree with that: because you are doing the same thing -- instead of evicting for a lease that ended and them staying over, you've changed it so that it goes to a crazy rent and then you evict for non-payment. So, even you seem to agree that evicting for non-payment is a better solution. :)

- John...

If lease has ended and non-renewed and tenant is holding over is that not a violation?

In MI when the lease ends it does not default to month-to-month unless it is so stated in the lease that it will got to MTM - according to the MSU landlord-tenant guide.

The MSU Landlord-Tenant Guide cannot be trusted. The original version said that a year-long lease AUTO-RENEWED FOR ANOTHER YEAR if nothing was done. I contacted them several times until I finally got a response from someone that confirmed that there was no legal precedence backing that statement and they agreed that it was an error in the document.

So, then they released a version that said that it auto-renewed for a MTM agreement instead. Which seems more accurate. But, then, suddenly, they released a NEW version that does this weird combination of everything! Right now, it says this about fixed-term leases:

"It terminates automatically at the end of the

period specified. Generally, a written lease

provides that if a tenant holds over after the

fixed term expires, the tenancy shall be

considered a month-to-month tenancy. On the

other hand, if the lease does not so provide,

and the parties acquiesce—i.e., tenant stays in

possession and landlord accepts the rent—the

lease is considered renewed for the same fixed

term upon the same conditions."

So, in that one paragraph, it basically says:

1. It terminates.

2. A lease usually states that it goes to MTM, so if your lease says that, that is what happens.

3. If the lease does NOT specify anything, then apparently it renews for the same fixed term. (As long as both parties "acquiesce" and the LL takes the rent.

They provide absolutely no legal references to explain #3. In MY opinion, if a tenant stays past a 1-year lease and keeps paying and I accept it, it would default to a MTM, not another year lease. I think the MSU STUDENTS and profs that came up with that are incorrect. Again, they've changed it repeatedly and, in private, have agreed with me that there is no legal backing for what they suggest.

In any case, the lesson here is: specify in your lease exactly what happens when the fixed-term expires. And, if you have not done that right now, then (according to the MSU people), you should not accept any future payments after the lease expires if you really want them out. Otherwise, you have acquiesced to continuing the agreement (even if we argue about whether or not it is MTM or another fixed term like they would state).

- John...

Yes I guess there are still contridictons because what I was referring to was Q6 where they write in BOLD:

"Q6 How can a lease be terminated?

Fixed-Term Tenancy

This type of tenancy is created when the

lease agreement specifies when the tenancy

begins and when it ends. [BOLD] It terminates

automatically at the end of the period

specified. A fixed-term lease ends on its own

Kurt: Well, that is accurate -- a fixed term lease DOES terminate automatically. The issue is: so then what happens if someone stays there? Because, well, you have to admit -- that happens ALL THE TIME.

So, then they give the additional info that if you specify in the lease it goes MTM, then it does. But then they say that if you don't specify, then it auto-renews for the same term. Which, again, I don't see any legal backing for -- and, as you just said, completely conflicts with what they said in Q6. :)

- John...

Jason: I'm confused. You just said "my lease states month to month lease." What do you mean by that?

I think we assumed this was a year-lease that had ended and was now MTM. Is that not the case? How long have they been there and was this a fixed-term that then went to MTM? Or this has ALWAYS been a MTM?

I guess it doesn't matter TOO much -- the DC100c would still be the way to go. You have a MTM and decided to terminate -- which you are free to do in our state -- and they didn't leave. I think you're good with the DC100c.

What date did you give the 30 day notice? And when is the last time they paid you rent?

- John...

Sounds good. Did they even offer an April 15th payment and you had to refuse it? Or did they not even try to pay April 15th?

Seems like if they just wanted to stay, they would have paid 4/15 and you'd have to decide to reject it or not if you wanted to evict. If they didn't even try to pay it, what is their plan? Or do you think they simply decided to stop paying as soon as you did the DC100c?

Also, when did you give them notice that you were terminating their MTM?

- John...