25/05: Tenant's Breach of Lease

A tenant breached a lease by quitting the premises with more than six months left on her lease. She received an itemized list of damages to be deducted from the security deposit. In Michigan, if the tenant sends the landlord her forwarding address within 4 days of moving out, the landlord has 30 days to return the deposit or send an itemized list of damages against the deposit and the tenant has seven days to object. In this case, we got the tenant out of the lease without having to pay anything for that lost rent!

It was easy but not due to my manipulation. On the merits, we were arguing


that the landlord failed to keep the premises safe because though the tenant had requested new locks in light of an attempted break-in at her apartment, nothing was done by the management. This was a good argument but was not weight bearing at all because what clinched the deal was the security deposit timeline. The management sent out my client the list of damages beyond the 30 day deadline by which they were bound. When I informed them that they had to return the full deposit to my client even though she moved out with months left on the lease, they bucked up and asked for proof. I told them that my client was a great record keeper and had the envelope to prove that they failed to adhere to the 30 day timeline. When I faxed over a copy of the front of the envelope, the deal was done and we received the full deposit and saved thousands of dollars.

Moral of the story: Keep your records including the envelopes! Get out of paying damages for unpaid rent by arguing the security deposit timeline.


Comments

Tim wrote:

Landlord renewal question.

Hello, my lease does not expire until August 31,2008 but my landlord wants me to renew it now for the following year or he will advertise it. Does he not have to give me first right of refusal say within a reasonable time period from the end of the lease?
03/10 20:20:20

refadmin wrote:

Hi Tim. No, your landlord does not have to give you a right of first refusal unless that is a provision the two of you have agreed upon in your lease. However, depending on the period of your tenancy, in order to terminate your lease, your landlord must give you the appropriate legal notice. You did not indicate the length of time of your tenancy. If it is a fixed term for a definite period, it terminates automatically at end of specified period. If it is a periodic tenancy for an indefinite duration, it continues until one party terminates it by proper notice to other. The Michigan rule is that 1 years notice is required to terminate a periodic yearly tenancy. For other durations notice is sufficient if it is equal to the interval of payment. Notice can be given any time as long as it is 30 days.

Therefore, while your lease does not expire until August 31, 2008, if it is a periodic yearly tenancy, then your landlord cannot get you out unless he gives you one year notice. Since he has not given you a year's notice, you are entitled to another yearly period. Now, practically speaking, this may not be enforced in the courts, but it is the law.
03/10 21:53:29

Curtis wrote:

Hi, I'm hoping this is the correct place for this question. I moved out of the house I was living in to move to a friend's because I was not spending nearly anytime at my own residence. I was never on the lease. I was merely allowed by the other residents of the house to share a room with another occupant. I never signed a lease or a sublet contract. Now that I have moved out, the current tenants are asking for me to pay rent for the months until the lease ends or they will take me to small claims court. What would the result of this action be? Considering that there have been no agreements in writing, I don't think that I owe them anything. Also, they are trying to get money for utilities as well, even though for the last 2 months I have spent maybe 10 hours in the house, mainly just to move my belongings out.

Thanks
13/03 22:23:38

refadmin wrote:

In Michigan, the result of the action would likely be that they would lose. You cannot be held responsible for their lease. At most, you would be responsible for a month's rent as where in a month-to-month lease, you should provide one month's notice to move out. Additionally, on the utilities, you have a strong defense. If you did not sign a lease or enter into a verbal agreement on the utilities, who is to say that you agreed to pay for any utilities. Some landlords do pay for some or all of the utilities.
13/03 23:15:30

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