How Much Notice is Needed to Non-Renew the Week to Week?

 Each party must give at least 7 days’ notice prior to the end of the weekly rental period,  BUT if there is or was a written lease and it requires MORE notice by the landlord, the manager MUST follow the lease agreement.

If a written week to week lease is expired, you may feel that since the lease agreement is expired, it has no meaning, but this is completely incorrect. You still are held to the terms of the expired lease. The first step is to examine the lease carefully if there was one.  

The number of days’ notice and the timing of the notice are the two main factors that can get the manager in huge trouble if the Notice of Non-renewal is incorrect.

Always remember that the number of days’ notice is the minimum number of days’ notice to be given PRIOR to the end of the weekly rental period. The most common mistake by managers is to think that they can give 7 days’ notice any time they wish, and that the Tenant must vacate at the end of that 7 day time period.

How Must the Notice Of Non-Renewal be Served?

Florida law does not explicitly provide how you must serve the Notice of Non-Renewal but gives the options of hand delivery, posting on the premises or mailing; the important thing is that you can prove the Tenant got the Notice of Non-Renewal.

You must go to the expired lease if there was a lease initially and carefully look to see if there are any requirements of the parties to serve notices to each other in a certain fashion.

If your expired lease requires that the notice be mailed, you MUST add 5 additional business days on the front end of the notice for mailing time. Don’t think that since you mailed it in the 7 days before the end of the weekly rental period as required by Florida law or the expired lease, you just have to wait another 5 days, and your Notice of Non-Renewal is now fine. Your Notice of Non-Renewal was defective the minute you failed to mail it at least 5 business days before 7 days prior to the end of the weekly rental period. Time does not cure the defective Notice of Non-Renewal, and again, even though a lease is expired, you still must follow what the expired lease provides.

Best Practices on Notice of Non-Renewal Serving

There will come a time when your Tenant is extremely upset that the week to week tenancy is being non-renewed, especially if the week to week tenancy has gone on for some time. The Tenant may deny getting the Notice of Non-Renewal.

Serving the Notice of Non-Renewal multiple ways is your safest bet. Serving the Notice of Non-Renewal by regular mail, certified mail, hand delivery and posting on the door of the unit if the Tenant is not home or refuses to answer the door, may seem excessive, but just wait for the day when the Tenant denies he ever got notice.

Private process servers also are available to serve notices and their word and affidavits of service are well respected by the judicial system. If you need a name of a private process server, give us a call, as we use them all over the state.

CERTIFIED MAIL – Certified mail is extremely unreliable so if you decide to use this method or are required to use this method by the expired lease, serve the Notice of Non-Renewal other ways IN ADDITION to the certified mail.

TIMING IS CRUCIAL

When counting the number of days, you do not count the day on which the Notice of Nonrenewal is delivered and it is straight days.  You do not have to exclude Saturdays, Sundays or Legal Holidays.

The Extension Request

Inevitably you will be put in a situation when the Tenant requests more time. This request and your response has to be treated with extreme care, as it can result in false expectations, misunderstandings and potentially create a situation in court where you have a “he said/she said” battle, which may or may not involve an out of state owner of the property who may or may not have to appear in court.

When asked by Tenant for an extension of time, if you feel it is warranted, or you feel the property owner may agree, clearly tell the Tenant that no extension will be granted unless the property owner agrees and everything is put into writing. If it is your own property, this is not an issue, as you can make a decision immediately, but if you are managing for another, you will need to check with the property owner, obtain clear direction from the property owner in writing (email is fine), and then relay it to the Tenant immediately with the Tenant signing an “Agreement to Vacate” form.

If there are multiple Tenants, all Tenants must sign this form. If only one Tenant is available, give the Tenant a deadline to have all Tenants available to sign the Agreement to Vacate, or indicate the Notice of Non-renewal stands. This is when everything usually falls apart. It is crucial to be definitive and firm with the Tenant, and document everything in writing with the Tenant. Any delay or failure on your part to get back to the Tenant with an answer will be conveniently interpreted by the Tenant as implicit agreement to the requested extension, while you have no agreement in writing.

By telling a Tenant that he can have an extension, you essentially have voided your Notice of Non-renewal. You can’t then fall back on the original Notice of Non-renewal. If the Tenant does not sign an Agreement to Vacate if an extension is granted, you could lose an eviction action, or have to re-do the Notice of Non-renewal, resulting in potentially damaging delays if the Tenant fails to vacate on the new agreed upon date. Never trust that Tenants will do “what they are supposed to do”. Assume the opposite, and if you are not sure how to handle an extension request, the best thing you can do is call your attorney immediately before doing anything.

“Serving the Property Management Professional”

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