Giving Notice to Old Apartment

[honeybunny]

How many days before your lease ends does your apartment complex require you to put in notice if you plan to move out? I am just curious how things work for everyone else, especially those of you in Austin. I put in my 30-day notice (which I thought was pretty standard in TX) yesterday stating that we plan to move out by October 31 and found out that my lease agreement requires a 60-day notice. :eek: Now we owe $920 to rent for another month or a $782 re-letting fee to "break" the lease and still move out Oct. 31. Personally, I think the management company is trying to rip people off. I mean who thinks about putting in their notice 2 months before they move out? And it was really nice of them to send us a note saying, "Hey, your lease is up at the end of October. Don't forget to put in your 60-day notice if you plan to move."

[Neneuu]

Yeah, we had to give a 60 day notice too. It's just a way to insure getting our money. It really sucks. We turned our notice in on Sept 10th so we paid Sept. , Oct., prorated Nov. and the reletting fee of 765 - we have to give them $1065 for Nov and we won't even be living there!!! It really sucks! It would of been nice to not have to pay rent/mortgage for Nov. But oh well, I should of read that stupid lease closer!

SUCKS!!! :mad:

[honeybunny]

This was me yesterday when I found out. :fmad:
So my husband has decided that he should deal with them from now on. He's going to try to at least get out of half the fee since we did give them a 30-day notice. We'll see if that works, but legally they don't have to give us a break on this one. Stupid apartment... I hate renting.

[Neneuu]

I totally understand. Or at least see if they can back date it... They can... they just have to "want" to, and they can be buttholes about it.

At least this will be your last apartment!!!

[nicolef888]

Honeybunny-

Are you breaking your lease or is your lease officially up? I'm assuming that you are breaking your lease. I tried to get out of the extra fees when I broke my lease a few years ago as they really stuck it to me but finally gave in and was glad to just be in my own house. You may want to check your lease agreement because if it specifically says 60 days notice then you will have a tough time getting out of it. Sorry, I don't mean to be negative.

[Neneuu]

Actually I think I remember her saying that her lease was up at the end of Oct. Can they still hold her to that 60 day notice if her lease is up? Doesn't seem like they should be able to... b/c the reletting fee is if you are BREAKING your lease and technically she isn't. Hmmm, Honey, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for you.

I on the other hand, am breaking my lease. So I know I have to pay it. I've come to terms with it!:rolleyes:

[honeybunny]

No, we're just moving out the day our lease is up. But they word the contract so that you have to give a 60-day notice no matter what and if you don't the your lease automatically goes month-to-month (at a higher rate of course). So we would basically be "breaking" the automatic extension on our lease. They're such bastards. They are right legally, but come on, who thinks to give a 60-day notice? By the way, when did everyone switch to 60-day notices instead of 30?

[Neneuu]

I don't know... I thought it was just Amli doing that... hmmm, strange. You gotta watch 'em they are money hungry!!!

[honeybunny]

Don't get me wrong guys, I agree that they have every right to tell us to just pay the fee. That is what the contract that we signed stated. I just think that the people who wrote the contract would know that most people will not think to put in a notice 2 months before they plan to move out (especially when they plan to move out when the lease ends anyway). And if you go on the assumption that most people won't think to do that, then the apartment complex is guaranteed at least the $782 re-letting fee from about 75% of their tenants. That sounds a little unethical (however legal) to me, but that's just my opinion.

[stacyl]

If the paper your complex left for you saying that your lease is up and not to forget to give 60 day notice was not given to you prior to the 60 days (might need a date on it to prove that) you may have a bargaining chip. I'm not positive what the repercussions are if the complex doesn't provide you with notice of your impending lease extension on time, but it might be something worth investigating. I think a lot of the complexes went to 60 days when the economy slowed down. It is one more way for them to get more money out of you. However, I've always gotten my notices on the end of my leases a few days prior to the 60 day restriction.

We had to break our lease when we got our house as well. We actually figured out that it was only saving us ~$500 to go ahead a break it instead of simply paying the remaining 3 months as if we were living there....

[honeybunny]

Actually they never gave us a notice saying that the 60-day mark was getting near. I just thought it would have been nice if they did, but I guess that would defeat their ulterior motive of getting more money. Unfortunately there are no legal repercussions on them not sending a reminder... I just thought it was rude. We're going to try to play "pity party" to see if they'll help us out. Anyway, for those that are still renting, be sure to check your lease agreement for this.

[honeybunny]

:( :cry: <----- Is this pitiful enough?

[Neneuu]

LOL, you're funny!!

If that doesn't work then... :flip:

[honeybunny]

exactly

[Nerdgirl]

Hmmm....I broke my lease and had to give 30 days notice and paid 80% relet fee (which came to about $439). I've never heard of an apartment requiring 60 days notice....is this average? I guess my complex was just really nice.

Be sure to read over your original lease VERY carefully - maybe you can find a loophole?? Or bargain if they haven't kept other things up in your apartment - like bug and appliance maintenance. Just an idea.

[Neneuu]

I think it's just within the past year or so, b/c my last apartment - Chardonnay (right down the street from Amli) only required a 30 day notice.

[ksix]

We ran into a similar situation...and since I had to pay for that extra month, I did not give my key back until the end of the last day I paid for. They were notorious for people moving out early (because of the 60 day thing) and while they were paying rent on an empty apartment, the complex would re-rent it, and the next tenant would be paying...so they'd have two rents from that one apartment. Total gip! It was worth it to me to drive an hour out of my way a few weeks after I moved out just so they couldn't rent it...I hadn't signed the final "I'm outta this pit" paper, so it was still 100% mine. I even went into the apartment which had been empty for nearly a month just to make sure they hadn't done so much as a paint touch up.

[angelrenee]

If you've got nothing else to do, I definitely like the idea of not letting them so much as look at the apartment until your paid time is up. Weird that you're having this problem when the other places didn't have anything quite so nasty. :(

I know that here, we almost forgot to let our people know we were moving. I guess in a small town they generally assume that unless you tell them you are staying then they will rent out the apartment. Main problem we had was that our lease supposedly ran out half-way through the month, but we went back and checked an it ran out at the end. We almost had renters trying to move in while we were still there! I think the owner just wanted to rent it as soon as possible. I understand that the owner is quite, um... Maybe I shouldn't say that on a public board... Anyway, we never had to deal directly with her, so all is good.

[honeybunny]

Well, we won't be letting them have it early cause we've only got 3 weeks to move from when we close on the house and when we are out of the apartment, which is still going to be October 31st. I'm not paying an extra month. Screw them... I'll pay the re-letting fee if they make us, but it doesn't say that we have to pay an extra month. See, we're not breaking our lease... we just gave them a 30-day notice instead of 60. Our lease was up on October 31st regardless.

[andrea]

my lease doesnt say anything about it

but our was a 6 months lease and then after about a month here we changed it to a year