Tenant Rights while Owner Sells House

[Nick Vehr]

So this came up today with a friend of mine who currently rents his house but is looking to buy a house in the next couple of months. His landlord decided they would want to sell the house, and he is getting the run around and it doesn't really seem right in my opinion. 

Background

• Hes lived there for 8 years, and is month to month
• There is a weird termination of lease clause in his lease that gives the timeline to terminate the lease as "thirty (60) days"
• Realtor came and asked him to clean up so they can begin showing the house
• There was a lock box put on the house
• He is being asked to leave the property for 8 hours this weekend (4 sat and 4 sunday) to allow for showings 
• There have been comments made that as soon as the house is under contract he will have 45 days to leave the property

So, I am fully aware it's in the owners write to sell the house, but are they allowed to encroach on his living arrangement so aggressively without him having any recourse. Due to money constraints and due to him wanting to buy a house, involving a lawyer may just cost too much, unless there is a reasonable chance that he could win a suit. 

I wanted to reach out here and see if anyone has any suggestions on how to handle this. FWIW This is in the state of Ohio, and he does have a copy of the lease. If anyone were to want to take a look at it and offer up some help, please let me know. 

[Peter MacKercher]

@Nick Vehr State laws, local laws, and the lease are what will determine what's right, not what you "feel", in this situation. The fact that he's lived there 8 years doesn't matter. He doesn't own the property, nor would he after having rented it for 20 years. He's a tenant, and the nature of his MTM lease only guarantees he'll stay there at most 31 days when the lease automatically renews. I'm intentionally being fairly stark here as some tenants start to feel that they're owed something for having been good tenants, or having lived somewhere for X years, and your post reads like you're trying to find an argument as to why your friend can sue this landlord because they feel that they're owed something beyond the terms of their lease. They're not.

OK, so we've gotten over that initial hump. Now let's address the points you have.

The lease obviously has a typo in it, which happens, and that can go either way. If there were to be court action a judge would make a determination, but the end result in either situation would be the same -- the tenant moves out after receiving notice. Taking an issue that small to court would be a waste of everyone's time since, even if there was a ruling in the tenant's favor, they'd have to then prove damages that came from the notice. If the tenant moves in either situation, good luck on that one. That said, notice requirements for a MTM/term lease 

The lockbox isn't an issue -- a tenant is a tenant, not the owner of the property, and they don't get to decide if there is or isn't a lockbox on the property.

Next point: the Realtor can't require him to be out of the house so that they can show. They can, with proper notice, enter and show the property, but that doesn't cancel his lease for that time period and make it somehow legally impossible for him to be present in his apartment at those times. Being asked to leave the property is something else, and he can decline to leave.

Asking him to clean for showings: also not required beyond what the lease specifies in terms of cleanliness. 

On the 45 days to vacate after a contract is accepted, well, that's beyond the typical non-renewal notice of 1 term and this ground is already covered above.