Can the tenant do this?

[Sharad M.]

Hello all,

I am a new landlord and I just got a call from one of my tenants who wants to move out. He is on a month to month lease. He moved in Oct 1 and gave me security deposit. He signed a lease but I never gave him a copy of the lease.

Now he just called me and told me that he wants to move out in next couple of days. So I told him that he needs to give me 30 days notice per the signed lease and he said because I didn't give him a copy of the lease, by law he's not supposed to give me notice. Is that right? The signed lease that I have clearly says that he's supposed to give me 30 days notice before he moves.

[Jon Holdman]

Does your governing law require you to provide a copy of the lease? If you don't what does it say happens if you don't?

Realistically, there's nothing you can do here. The guy is going to move and you're not getting anything for Nov rent. Sounds like your lease covers this, so I'd apply the lease to determine what to do with the deposit. Do a walk through, tell him whats wrong, take the keys. Hopefully he leaves it in a good state so you can re-rent quickly. Then, apply your lease and account for his deposit. If you think he owes you for Nov and owes a lease breaking fee, take them out of the deposit. If he ends up in the hole, send him a bill.

It might be worth a phone call to your lawyer. If you don't have one for this sort of thing, this would be a good time to track one down. You might be able to get a few questions answered as part of an initial consultation. If you have to pay $200 to be sure you know the right thing to do, that's money well spent.