Tenant Not Renewing Lease

[Emily Weaver]

First time landlord here - Our lease is up on March 1 and I had sent notices to our tenant  at the beginning of December to notify him of rental increases as well as lease renewals (or not).  I had not heard from him and the deadline was set to December 31, 2021.  I had texted a few times and finally today received word that our tenant is choosing not to renew the lease.  He will need to be out in 20 days.

Do I still need to get the notices signed and returned back to me?  If I have it in writing (via text) that he is not renewing?

What do I do to ensure that he is out when he needs to be?  

Any helpful advice to ensure this process goes smoothly and we are able to get another tenant set up quickly?

[Joe Splitrock]

@Emily Weaver your lease renewal form should have stated that "30 day notice is required per your lease terms". We ask tenants to send an email or physical mail notice to vacate. It is fairly irregular to accept 20 day notice, but if you are fine with it, that is up to you. You should have followed up long before February on this. If the decision was due at the end of December, you should have contacted them at the end of December. I would text or call if you had no response. You need to be more proactive in your business or you will have big problems going forward. It is very common for my tenants to drag their heels on responding, but we send reminders and contact them before the deadline. We also have a default option if they do nothing. If they don't respond, the lease changes to month to month at a higher rate. That way if they don't respond you just start charging them more. Our M2M rate is $100 more than lease term rate.