Tenant and Lease renewal issue

[Sendil Thangavelu]

Hello,

I have a tenant living in my rental property in FL. Tenant has always paid on time for the past 2 years and has been great so far. Tenant is within 60 days of current lease expiring and is required to give me 60 days notice if they plan to vacate, per the lease agreement. I have reached out a few times asking if they want to renew lease for the third year and they are simply not responding. I even sent tenant a lease renewal agreement for e-signature and there is no response. They are paying rent on time and this is wierd. I need to start marketing the property if they want to vacate. How do I hold them accountable to make a decision. I think they are forcing me indirectly to get into a month-to-month situation?

Any guidance is helpful. Thank you in advance

[Patricia Steiner]

I bet your lease states that either party can cancel with 60-days notice, right?  Since you've reached out to them multiple times with no response, I would send them - by email and mail with delivery confirmation required - a notice that you are cancelling the lease at lease end. I would cite that their failure to respond as the reason for the termination and provide a final walk-through date for inspecting the property/processing the return of their security deposit.  While they've been a good tenant, there is no excuse for holding you hostage.  I find often times that this happens when tenants are attempting to buy a home and are stringing out the landlord until they determine if they qualify or not.  Once the tenants know that you are not providing a safety net at your financial detriment, you will more than likely hear from them.  

Protect your cash flow by letting your tenants know that no response is a response and that the lease terminates at the end of the lease term.

Hope this helps...