Landlord and Tenant Law Flashcards
The four leasehold or nonfreehold estates
- The tenancy for years
- The periodic tenancy
- The tenancy at will
- The tenancy at sufferance
The tenancy for years
This is a lease for a fixed, determined period of time. That amount of time could be, for example, one day, or two months, or 50 years.
How to determine when a leasehold interest is a Tenancy for Years
As long as you know the termination date from the start, you have a term of years.
Notice requirement- tenancy for years
Notice is not necessary to terminate a tenancy for years, because by definition this leasehold states from the outset when it will come to an end.
Tenancy for Years- VA Creation Rules
In VA, a landlord is required to offer a tenant a written lease. If the landlord does not, a tenancy is deemed to exist by operation of law on the following terms:
- The duration is 12 months with no automatic renewal
- The rent must be paid in equal monthly installments, and
- Rent payments are due on the first day of each month.
The landlord and tenant may still enter into a written lease at any time during this 12-month tenancy.
Tenancy for Years- VA termination
In VA, a tenant who is a victim of family abuse, sexual abuse, or sexual assault may terminate any residential lease with 30 days’ notice.
SoF requirement- Tenancy for Years
A term of years greater than one year must be in writing to be enforceable, because of the statute of frauds.
The periodic tenancy
This is a lease which continues for successive intervals until L or T give proper notice of termination.
The two ways a periodic tenancy can be created
- Expressly
- By implication
How an express periodic tenancy is created
- The leasehold interest is created to be open-ended and continuous, running from interval to interval.
- e.g. “To T from week to week,” or “To T from year to year” or “To T from month to month.”
The three ways an implied periodic tenancy is created
- Land is leased with no mention of duration, but provision is made for the payment of rent at regular intervals.
- e.g. L leases to T, but nothing is said about duration. However, T pays rent each month. T is an implied month-to-month periodic tenant.
- An oral term of years that violates the statute of frauds creates an implied periodic tenancy, measured by the way rent is tendered.
- e.g. L and T negotiate over the telephone for a commercial lease. They orally agree on a five year lease with rent at $1,000 per month. Once T begins paying rent on a monthly basis, an implied month-to-month periodic tenancy has been created.
- The holdover. If L elects to holdover a T who has wrongfully stayed on past the conclusion of the original lease, an implied periodic tenancy arises, measured by the way rent is now tendered.
- e.g. T holds over after the expiration of her one-year lease, but sends another month’s rent check to L, who cashes it. T is now an implied month-to-month periodic tenant.
How a periodic tenancy is terminated
- Notice must be given
- Notice must be at least equal to the length or the period or interval itseld, unless otherwise agreed.
- e.g. in a month-to-month tenancy, L or T must give one month’s notice. In a week-to-week tenancy, one week’s notice is needed.
Periodic Tenancy Termination Notice Requirement Exception
If the periodic tenancy runs in intervals from year to year or more, only 6 months’ notice is needed to terminate.
Periodic Tenancy Termination in VA
The landlord or tenant may terminate a periodic tenancy by serving a written notice on the other in accordance with the following time frames:
- Year-to-year: three months
- Month-to-month: 30 days
- Week-to-week: 7 days.
Termination notice provision moderation
Freedom of contract is an important norm in the context of the modern lease.
The parties may agree to lengthen or shorten any of those common law notice provisions.
