If I am renting and buying a home, am I required to give a 30 day notice to vacate?

Question

I am looking for a home to buy, and I put an offer in on one Sunday. I am renting a home, month to month, my lease expired a long time ago. However my landlord told me to just give him a 30 day notice if I plan on moving. But the thing is that I don't know when or if the bank will accept my home offer, and as soon as they do, it is my home and I will have to start making mortgage payments on it, and I will move in of course..but it could take them a week to 3 months I heard to approve my offer. this house is awful & it's not insulated at all and the pipes freeze in the winter, leaving us without water for days. my heat bill last winter was $400.00 a month for a 1,000 square foot house with no basement so I'd like to get out of here asap. especially b/c I have a 6 month old now. The landlord has a sec. deposit equal to a little over a mo. rent. should I just move out & he can take the sec. deposit as the rent? The house is in good condition. Can I get in any kind of trouble?

Answer 1

Tough question. I went through the same thing and gave a 30 day notice which fell through....twice. Luckily, my landlord didn't have any serious people interested in the apartment. I had a good relationship with him and he was happy to see me do better, so when moving day came and went and I was still there, he accepted rent on a week to week basis on the agreement that I would keep him updated on my progress and keep the apartment nice and clean and make a good impression on any potential renters.
I would ask him to do an inspection of the apartment and tell him of your plans. Let him know, he's dependent on your rent to keep the house too. Make sure you have a receipt for the security deposit, but it's best to avoid court altogether. As a landlord now that I bought my house, I would forgo the whole months rent in trade for a partial payment and clean apartment because I could avoid the cost of court. You really can't lose here, but please document the fact that you haven't damaged the apartment in case he is vindictive.

Answer 2

Take 3 deep breaths and relax. Yes, you have put in an offer to buy a house but here is how that is going to work timewise.
First you and the bank will either agree on a price and you will buy it or you will not agree on a price and you will start looking at other houses. There is NO need to tell your landlord until you have an ACCEPTED offer from the bank.
If you are working with a real estate agent then in the written offer to the bank/owner there should be terms in there that state something like ;"subject to financing" meaning that you have to qualify and get a loan for the house with interest rates and terms and payments that you can afford.
AFTER the bank accepts your offer there is usually 30 to 45 days before you go to the closing table and actually take possesion of the house. It takes that much time to get loan paperwork, title paperwork, inspections, etc. done so just because you offered to buy the house, you don't need to worry about moving for another month or 2.
Money, once you sign the loan paperwork at closing the first payment will not be due for 30 to 60 days later so just relax and wait for an answer from the bank. Once you have an accepted offer THEN talk to your landlord about when you will be closing and when you will need to move out. 30 days notice should not be any problem and this should actually allow you to live in the house for the first month with no house payment. But you will need that money to pay deposits for gas, water, trash, phone, etc. so don't think you can go partying with the rent check.

Answer 3

I'd like to think win-win, not screw-you-good-bye, in these situations.

Your landlord has a month+ rent in security deposit. You are only required to give him 30 day notice. So... what's the difference? You could leave in bad term by saying good bye today and lose the deposit, OR, you could give him 30 day notice, pay the last month rent, and potentially get the deposit back. I don't see ANY financial difference.

Especially if you have the "little one," moving will take few weeks, so you could actually end up using most of the last 30 days with your "stuff" still in the apartment.

House purchase is a stressful proposition. You don't need to make it any more difficult for yourself than you have to.

I would say, plan on giving the 30 day notice and leave on a good term. By properly doing the walk-through for your move out, you can protect yourself from unexpected lawsuit for damages you didn't cause also.

By the way, don't give the notice until YOU are SURE you have a house.

Answer 4

You are financially responsible for the rent up to 30 days if you don't give notice. But, I've always had luck talking to my landlord about changing situations -- if you've been a good tenant for a year, there is no reason they wouldn't work with you.

Worse comes to worst, you pay the rent for 30 days from the moment you are sure you have the new house -- this will be the price you pay for not having firm plans.

If you are buying a new house, a week or two of rent should be something you can cover. If you are hurting for a couple of week of rent when about to close on a house -- you should perhaps wait and save more money. You may not be ready to buy a place.

Answer 5

You need to give at least 30 days written notice. In some states, like California, if the tenant has been there longer than 1 year then this must be 60 days written notice. If they have an existing lease then you'll need to abide by that contract as well. Officially, you are owed the rent starting on the day you own the property. You'll need to work out all this with the current owner though since it doesn't sound like you want to deal with a tenant at all. If it's a small amount of money you might be able to just offset the sale price or something.

Answer 6

If your lease has expired and you only have verball agreement between you and your landlord then you actually have it good! All you would have to do is when you start the final stages of your mortgage papers and ect.. you should have a set date of your possession of your new home. If not you will know that it will be soon. So something you have to think of before you move out without a real great notice
Is there any damage to the house since you have moved in that you might need to fix?
Because if so and it exceeds your damage deposit your landlord can actually sue you for the rest of the repair. When you give your landlord the notice make sure it is in writing no matter if it is for 2 weeks or 2 days. And make sure to schedule a walk through just making sure that there is no damage that they can try to pin on you. And it is okay to use your damage deposit for your last month's rent if you are not giving a notice. People will not recommend it but if they wanted to sue it would cost them more to do that then just find new renters and keep your deposit. Just make sure the house is clean top to bottom and that there isn't any damage and your deposit will be fine to use!! okay hope that cleared it up for you.

Answer 7

I would have an attorney review your lease, but here are some thoughts....Does your expired lease reference any "holdover period"? That would be the time that you continue to occupy the home following the expiration of your lease. If you trust your landlord and have a good relationship with him, ask him to put it in writing. That he will return your sec deposit as long as you give him 30 days notice and return the house in good condition, etc. , etc.

Answer 8

Up to you.

You can give 30 days notice and get the sec. deposit back (minus any damages your landlord might decide to charge you for)

Or just tell him your moving and let him keep the deposit. He can't take any action (Other then suing for damages to the property which he could do in either case.) You just won't be able to use him as a reference but if your own...who cares?

Answer 9

Your legal requirement is to notify the landlord thirty days in advance of any one specific rent due date of your intent to vacate the premises. Failure to do so makes you liable for rents until such notice is properly delivered. In addition, you may be held responsible for any repairs needed over and above the amount of any security deposit left unused.