late termination notice

[Matyas Sustik]

Our tenants are on month to month (after the initial 1 year contract turned into it). The contract says the lease termination notice is terminating the lease at the end of the month following the month it is given.

One of the tenants sent an email on Aug 1 that they will terminate the contract and their last day is Aug 31. We emailed back asking them to send a dated, and signed (by both of them) termination notice as an attachment and include their new address as well.

They did so on Aug 4. Again specifying Aug 31 as their last day.

We believe that (per contract) they should have given written notice before Aug 1 if they wanted to leave on Aug 31. However, we do not want to "get them" for this mistake and charge an extra month of rent. We will be very happy to see them leave, since the relationship has deteriorated completely since they moved in.

However, we are a bit worried that if they cannot move out by Aug 31 (they are building a house and the builder is supposed to be done by Aug 15, but deadlines are not met sometimes in construction...) then they will say that the Aug 31 was a typo and per the contract the notice should be effective by end of September. If we get someone else to move in before end of September, we will have a serious problem.

So the question is: if the notice as mentioned above by the tenant has a wrong date per the contract, then does this still count as a firm move-out date? Do we need to do something to make sure that this date is solid and holds up later?

Actually, we are at the point with these tenants that we just wait until they clear out before we advertise the place. They already indicated that they will not cooperate nicely with showings. They insist to be present and only on two days of the week (no weekends). That is also contrary to the contract, but in all likelihood we would not want to bring a new tenant into the place, if we cannot be sure that we can get in and that the place is in showable condition.

Some further info. The tenants turned on the prewired and monitored security system (they signed up themselves) without our consent or knowledge. We cannot get in without tripping the alarm. They also have a dog which, if not in a cage, would prevent showings.

The tenants are ex-military and they show signs of bipolar disorder (nice one day and explode at you the next). Family advice is to avoid any confrontation. (They know where we live, they own guns and know how to use them. Capiche?) That would only leave the option of waiting until they actually move out and then list the place, effectively giving up a month's rent. I hoped someone here have something smart to say that could help and decide what we should do.