Month to Month Lease

[Regina Bailey]

I have a tenant who's been renting for 2 years and usually pays on time, but her lease is expiring at the of end November 2020. I have contacted her asking if she would be renewing her lease for another year. She replied and said "I would like to do a month to month, if not I will be moving.". Note that this is not the first time that this has been discussed with tenant upon renewal of lease. And as explained before, we (landlord) don't do month to month and can only give her either a 6 month or 12 month lease. For the record, we have given her 6 month leases for the last year and a half.

Now my question is, I don't do month to month (too much paper work and uncertainty) but considering COVID times we're living in should I accept the month to month or find another tenant (which isn't guaranteed)?

Thank you in advance.

[Allan Smith]

Month to month is not such a bad thing during coronavirus. You don't have to worry about trying to evict them for non-payment of rent, you just give them 30 days notice. After all, evictions are blocked right now, but only for Coronavirus related issues.

tell the tenant you will do a month-to-month lease, but your rate is $150 more per month. Or even more than that. That is commonplace to offer lower rates for longer-term leases and vice versa. That's what we do.