Beachfront condo renter wants to extend lease a few months (into winter!)

[Jeff T.]

I am a partner in a beachfront rental condo that I rent to a full-time tenant.  He's been great, very professional, but he plans to move out in the next few months, but that means I will have to rent the unit in the fall or winter.

The unit is under market rent (rents have increased considerably in the last year or so). My thought is to increase the rent closer to market since we are now month to month. Rent is $1495, market is maybe $1800.

I plan to send this to him, what do you think?

"We have been very happy with everything and would like you to stay for as long as you like. The only issue for us is the timing of when you go.

As you can imagine, it will probably take longer to lease a beachfront condo in the fall or winter than the summer. As I mentioned before, if you had decided to sign a 1 year lease, we would have kept the rent the same.

So maybe what we can do is continue the month to month, but at a rent that is closer to the market rent. We don't need to go all the way to market rent, which is something like $1800, but maybe what we can do is $1650."

Any thoughts from experienced landlords out there?

[Nicole A.]

I think the current tone of the letter is unneeded.

Does the current lease say that it automatically ends at X date or does it say that it goes month-to-month after that?

Has the tenant given an official move-out date?

With the letter negotiating price, you sound like you're selling a car. :-) You'll increase your chance that he'll just move out if you raise the rent an extreme amount.

Wording things like "if you had decided to sign a 1 year lease, we would have kept the rent the same," sounds accusing and is a turn-off.

Just simply draft a generic letter with a few options. Write professionally, not like you're speaking to him...and definitely not basically telling him it's his fault the rent went up.

1. Month-to-month for $X

2. 1year renewal for $X

3. End current lease with move-out date of X.