Month To Month Or Lease Agreements?

[Ramek Llah]

Which legal binding contract do you feel more comfortable with? My advisor recommends month to month for the simple fact, the process of eviction is quicker. But, I personally would rather a year lease due to stability but you can't really tell whats going to happen a person in the future.

[Roy N.]

I think many, perhaps most, landlords start out with annual leases either because they feel it creates more stability or, more frequently here, the lender interprets an annual lease as being more stable.

In reality, when a tenant decides to leave, a tenant is going to leave.  Usually it will not be worth your time, effort and cash to chase them for breaching a lease.

That said, we still use annual leases on student rentals, particularly student houses, as it does seem to help maintain the social cohesion of the housemates (this is antidotal observations of our student houses only).  

We also use term leases for our furnished units when being rented by out of town professionals or companies.

However, in our student rooming house and our "everyday Joe" buildings we rent predominately month-to-month.