How do we renew a lease with our tenant?

[Jonathan G.]

We are coming up on our tenant's renewal date.  Our current lease is one that reverts to a month-to-month if she doesn't sign a new year lease, which we are hoping she will do.  I have read on the forums that it is generally a good idea to reach out to the tenant 60 days out to find out their wishes.  Some people are saying that sending a simple letter with options that they check off and sign is enough (1- do nothing and revert to month-to-month, 2- renew the lease or 3- that they intend to vacate at the end of the current lease).  Is sending this type of letter all we need to have signed if they intend to stay another year or do we need to have them go through and change the dates on the lease document and have them sign that again for a new term?  I am assuming the letter could give us an idea and if they say that they want to renew we would have them sign a new lease, but I just wanted to ask for clarification!  Thanks y'all!  

[Thomas S.]

I would call them on the phone and ask what their plans are. If they are staying I would inform them that their existing lease will automatically continue as M2M. If you wish to make changes to the lease simply have them sign a addendum with the added changes.

There is no reason to have good tenants sign a term lease after being in the property for more than a year. The advantage of only having M2M leases is you can easily get rid of bad tenants (or good tenants that turn bad).