Tenant won't respond - nearing end of lease

[Alan Bosca]

Hi -

I have a lease ending mid Dec & would like to get my place back on the market if the tenant is leaving.

I notified him that the lease was ending and wanted to know his plans weeks ago - he didn't respond for several weeks, then said he wanted to stay until Feb.  I sent him a lease extension until Feb, & have not heard a word about it, despite a few requests to sign it.

I'd prefer to lock in Feb & look for a new tenant then, but as of now, I have nothing signed and extremely poor, intermittent communication, so I'm thinking I'll have to just put it back on the market.

Any advice on how best to protect myself from a messy, no notice curveball?  Again, I'd prefer to honor his request to stay until Feb, but the utter lack of communication makes me think the best approach would be to just get it on the market assuming he's going to blow it off & I'll be stuck flatfooted in mid Dec at the end of the lease.

Thanks for any input!

[Nathan Gesner]

This is a common Landlord mistake. Instead of using an open-ended question, give them specific choices:

Dear Tenant, 

Your lease is set to expire December 15th. Please review the following options and initial next to your choice.

____ Move out no later than December 15, 2019.

____ Extend on a month-to-month basis with a 20% increase to the monthly rent.

____ Renew for an additional 12-month period at a rate of $_________

If I do not receive a written response by (DATE), I will assume you intend to leave and will start marketing the property.

Best regards,

Landlord

Your options may be different than that. The point is, don't *****-foot around. It's your property so you give him the options and let him choose. When expecting a response from the Tenant, I always recommend putting a deadline in your letter. This prevents the tenant from returning the letter the day before move-out.

Learn to communicate clearly and professionally, and always try to keep it in writing.