- Jurisdiction
- New Hampshire
I live in NH. I am aware that a landlord has the right to not renew a lease for any reason, but in my particular situation she had agreed to and then changed her mind when it was time to renew, with no notice at all.
It started a year ago when we sat down to renew our second year lease on a house that we had been renting for a year already. We recognized that our landlord was one that sometimes just chose not to renew leases with her tenants because from time to time she needs a place to live and will live in one of her 3 rental properties for a summer and then re-rent it out in the fall. We were worried this would happen to us so when we signed our first lease with her we had it put in the lease that we could renew if we chose to the following year. But the following year when we sat down with her to renew she wouldn't put that same stipulation in our second lease, saying that she wasn't sure what her needs were going to be when this lease was up. So we asked her if she would agree to giving us six months notice if she could about whether we would need to move out. The reason for this was because our lease ended in the late spring and for both my girlfriend and I the spring/summer/fall is our busiest time of the year for work and if we were going to have to move then we would want a lot of notice in order to make it happen without having to lose work over it. She agreed to this, however it was only a verbal agreement. I know that I should have insisted that she put it in the lease we were about to sign but we didn't. Fast forward six months and she emails us about it saying that she thinks that she will need to stay in the house for the summer. She wanted to make the house more of a house share so that she could have a room in the house to stay in when she was around but that she would probably only be around for the summer and maybe holiday breaks. She is a teacher out in California for most of the year and usually only stays summers in NH. We think that maybe we could make this work and figure its just for the summer and that maybe she will drop the rent being that she will be sharing the house.
So we agree to it and we move on. She arrives in New Hampshire a little more than a month before our lease is up and is wondering if she can move in a month early. We say that we are not ready for her early, and figure that was perfectly reasonable, but I think that upset her.
Our lease was up at the end of June. We sit down with her on July 1st to discuss our new lease and things get a bit bumpy. We asked if she would contribute more to the rent, a third of the original total since there were three of us. She declined. We then agreed to her terms, but because of the differing opinions she wanted a night to "think it over". We thought she would consider our request. She stayed her first night in the house July 2nd. On July 3rd we received an email while we were out that she didn't think this new living arrangement was going to work out and we needed to consider a "plan b".
At this point we hadn't deposited any rent for July yet because we still weren't sure how much we would need to pay under our new lease agreement. Our search for a new place bore fruit the very next day and we found a place that we would be happy with.
We sat down with our landlord on July 7th to discuss what solutions she might have for the situation, what plan b might be.
She informed us of the reasons why she felt it wasn't going to work for her. Stupid things, but no matter. She said it would be great if we could be out by the end of the month. We said that would be impossible because we were so busy with work this time of year. We said the only way we could afford to take the time off of work to pack and move, and to afford a security deposit and first months rent elsewhere, was if she would waive rent for the month of July.
She agreed to this, not happily, but she agreed. I know that we should have gotten it in writing but we didn't.
So we took time off work, worked like hell to get everything packed and moved, and were out by the end of the month. She sent us an email saying how amazed she was about how wonderfully clean the place was. We thought everything was good. Until we sent her an email regarding our security deposit. Then she sent us an absolutely absurd and insulting email back saying things like, I can't believe you would expect your security deposit, I never agreed to forgive the month of rent, (and this was the best one) "If I was your parent I would maybe forgive it out of sympathy, but even that would be wrong because when you reach certain age you just have to pony up and take responsibility"
We were floored! and infuriated.
Is there anything we can do? Did she not give sufficient notice? We weren't under any binding contract for the month of July, and our lease doesn't say anything about automatic lease to lease upon expiring or anything. Is she entitled to our security deposit?
It started a year ago when we sat down to renew our second year lease on a house that we had been renting for a year already. We recognized that our landlord was one that sometimes just chose not to renew leases with her tenants because from time to time she needs a place to live and will live in one of her 3 rental properties for a summer and then re-rent it out in the fall. We were worried this would happen to us so when we signed our first lease with her we had it put in the lease that we could renew if we chose to the following year. But the following year when we sat down with her to renew she wouldn't put that same stipulation in our second lease, saying that she wasn't sure what her needs were going to be when this lease was up. So we asked her if she would agree to giving us six months notice if she could about whether we would need to move out. The reason for this was because our lease ended in the late spring and for both my girlfriend and I the spring/summer/fall is our busiest time of the year for work and if we were going to have to move then we would want a lot of notice in order to make it happen without having to lose work over it. She agreed to this, however it was only a verbal agreement. I know that I should have insisted that she put it in the lease we were about to sign but we didn't. Fast forward six months and she emails us about it saying that she thinks that she will need to stay in the house for the summer. She wanted to make the house more of a house share so that she could have a room in the house to stay in when she was around but that she would probably only be around for the summer and maybe holiday breaks. She is a teacher out in California for most of the year and usually only stays summers in NH. We think that maybe we could make this work and figure its just for the summer and that maybe she will drop the rent being that she will be sharing the house.
So we agree to it and we move on. She arrives in New Hampshire a little more than a month before our lease is up and is wondering if she can move in a month early. We say that we are not ready for her early, and figure that was perfectly reasonable, but I think that upset her.
Our lease was up at the end of June. We sit down with her on July 1st to discuss our new lease and things get a bit bumpy. We asked if she would contribute more to the rent, a third of the original total since there were three of us. She declined. We then agreed to her terms, but because of the differing opinions she wanted a night to "think it over". We thought she would consider our request. She stayed her first night in the house July 2nd. On July 3rd we received an email while we were out that she didn't think this new living arrangement was going to work out and we needed to consider a "plan b".
At this point we hadn't deposited any rent for July yet because we still weren't sure how much we would need to pay under our new lease agreement. Our search for a new place bore fruit the very next day and we found a place that we would be happy with.
We sat down with our landlord on July 7th to discuss what solutions she might have for the situation, what plan b might be.
She informed us of the reasons why she felt it wasn't going to work for her. Stupid things, but no matter. She said it would be great if we could be out by the end of the month. We said that would be impossible because we were so busy with work this time of year. We said the only way we could afford to take the time off of work to pack and move, and to afford a security deposit and first months rent elsewhere, was if she would waive rent for the month of July.
She agreed to this, not happily, but she agreed. I know that we should have gotten it in writing but we didn't.
So we took time off work, worked like hell to get everything packed and moved, and were out by the end of the month. She sent us an email saying how amazed she was about how wonderfully clean the place was. We thought everything was good. Until we sent her an email regarding our security deposit. Then she sent us an absolutely absurd and insulting email back saying things like, I can't believe you would expect your security deposit, I never agreed to forgive the month of rent, (and this was the best one) "If I was your parent I would maybe forgive it out of sympathy, but even that would be wrong because when you reach certain age you just have to pony up and take responsibility"
We were floored! and infuriated.
Is there anything we can do? Did she not give sufficient notice? We weren't under any binding contract for the month of July, and our lease doesn't say anything about automatic lease to lease upon expiring or anything. Is she entitled to our security deposit?
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