Just Letting
How to renew your
tenant’s lease
When is your tenant entitled to renew their lease?
W
hen your tenant’s lease expires, your
tenant has the option to extend
their lease for another year or more,
provided both parties have negotiated an increase in
the monthly rental payments.
However, your tenant may decide to renew the
lease but later decide to cancel the same contractual
agreement.
When the tenant has requested to renew the
lease (verbally or otherwise) and the landlord has
accepted this offer it is considered to be a valid
contractual agreement.
In the past, a prior verbal lease agreement was
considered legally binding. Now, with the new Rental
Housing Amendment Act the tenant must sign an
official written document.
Be wary of verbal lease agreements though. Any
communication about the lease agreement between
the tenant and landlord must be put into writing.
Even confirmation of a prior verbal agreement via
email is legally binding.
When your tenant decides to cancel the
contractual agreement, it is not null and void. The
tenant is still held accountable to the prior written
or verbal agreement, even though the tenant has
dec