Thursday | February 09, 2012
Oral lease must end with written notice
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By
C.L. Lindsay III
27 August 2007
Dear CO-STAR:
For the past few months I’ve been renting an apartment with two other people. My name isn’t on the lease and it never has been. I replaced one of the original leaseholders that moved out. I didn’t sign a sublet agreement or any kind of documentation binding me to this apartment. I’ve decided to move out (I was sort of getting gouged – was paying $100 more a month than anyone else). I told my roommates that I was leaving at the end of this month and they freaked out, they said I had to give them at least a month’s notice before I move out. They say I’ve got to pay this month’s rent and next month’s (because of this notice requirement). It all seems suspicious to me. I never signed anything, how can I ‘owe’ them notice?
- Steph, Junior, Public College or University, Maryland
Steph:
First I’ll give you the short answer: Sorry Steph, you owe the money.
Now here’s the explanation: Not EVERY agreement has to be in writing to be legally binding. This is one of the most misunderstood legal concepts by non-lawyers. Everyone seems to think that if its not written down, it doesn’t count. But that’s just not true.
I understand how people come to think this. In this day an age you can hardly buy a cup of coffee without exchanging paper. But, by and large, most oral contracts are perfectly legal and 100 percent binding. And, if you really have doubts about whether and why this is true, think about the reverse of your situation.
Let’s say you were perfectly happy in your orally rented room, but your roomies hated you. If they said over breakfast one morning, "Hey Steph, have your stuff out by the end of the day" your response would probably be, "But we have an agreement here." And you’d be right.
So what exactly is that agreement that protects both you and your roommates? Well, since there’s no contract, the terms of the lease are governed by state statute. In your case that’s Maryland Code Sec. 8-208 (a) (5) and Sec. 8-501. Those statutes basically say that for oral contracts for tenancies at will (which is what your rental is) written notice must be given at least one month prior to end the lease.
So your roommates are right. In fact, you still haven’t legally given them notice since you only notified them verbally (ironic, I know, an oral contract that needs to be ended in writing). So I’d write a letter today. And, unless you want to be sued in small claims court, I’d pay the rent you owe.
—
C.L. Lindsay III is the founding executive director of CO-STAR, the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights, and author of the book "The College Student’s Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party and More!" in bookstores now. CO-STAR is a network of lawyers, professors and students who work to protect academic freedom and constitutional rights at college campuses nationwide. If you have a question for CO-STAR, log on to their Web site at www.co-star.org.
The material in this column addresses general legal issues only; is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such; and may or may not be appropriate to a specific situation. Laws and procedures change frequently and are subject to differing interpretations. This column is not intended to create, and does not create, a lawyer-client relationship and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.
—
© 2007, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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I can empathize with your new client. As a child, as for many years as an adult, I had no real confidence in myself, regardless of accomplishments. When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me the lesson of the ‘Little Engine That Could.’ As you recall, it could because it though it could. Whenever they told me that, I say: “but I don’t think I can”, as that was a far as it ever went.
When I was in college I read a science fiction novel in which the main character (if I recall, I don’t really remember the details) was consumed by fear. So he learned this small poem, which I memorized and said it over and over to myself:
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
Recently I looked it up. It is from a book by Frank Herbert in the Dune series. Regardless of its origins, it really helped me; it helped that I memorized it and repeated it to myself a million times a day.
Well, there are other things that helped my in conquering fear and in ability to be confident, but that was one of the first steps.