Tenant got advice (?) from a housing office

[Jane S.]

Tenant (not Section 8) says the agent at the Colorado housing office told her the lease she signed means nothing and she can ignore it.

She also is requiring me to file a "credit" record (???) that she paid rent otherwise the lender will define her as "homeless." This record is supposed to contain evidence of every payment no matter what for along with dates, etc. She's trying to buy a house. She's going to give me a phone # to call. I dont see an issue, I can rattle off the numbers. In olden days one could present a utility bill showing proof that one lived at the address ... guess that's history ...

I offered her the opportunity to extend her lease for 6 months at a higher rent, but she is refusing to pay for a background report since she doesnt understand what information it will provide. My rule is "new lease=new background report" since a year has passed since the old one.

Someone at that office also read the lease and said it's a conglomeration of different leases. I'm a little scared ..now that the housing drones have unliiked it ...
I never heard of any of this in the 13 years I have been a LL.

The other option I offered her is to leave when ler lease expires which is Sept. 30. But she accused me of putting her out on the street. I gave her notice, the new lease, and option choice with 92 days notice. Isnt it strange how they always run out of time.

Just another chapter in the freaky friendly renters record. 

[Greg M.]

Unless the law says otherwise, she can't require you to do anything. Feel free to tell her that you will not provide any info to the lender until certain conditions are met (signing new lease with background check, signing confirmation of non-renewal, etc). Feel free to charge her for this call. 

Ask her for the housing office's agents name to confirm what they said. I bet she doesn't have one / won't give it to you as she is full of crap. What they might have told her was that if she breaks the lease, the lease term doesn't matter as you have to make an effort to mitigate damages by re-renting the place.

Did you talk to the person at the housing office that didn't like the lease or are you taking her word for what was said? And what does it matter that your lease is made up of pieces of other leases? It's still a valid lease regardless of whether you wrote it as a whole or took pieces from 100 different leases.