Imagine renewing your lease for your rental unit, but then the owner tells you that he wants you to move out so a family member could move in. Would you move out, or would you point out that you already signed a contract extending your lease?

In this story, one person is in this situation, and they are not about to move out after signing a lease!

Keep reading to see what they discover and how they use what they learned to get the management company to back down.

Renewed lease with management company, but owner don’t want any tenants after current lease period is over. Whatever you say!

I moved into a place in a college town, and it seemed perfect: low rent, newly refurbished, backyard for my dog, included washer and dryer, etc., etc.

The one problem I had was the owner.

Even though he hired a property management company to collect rent and “manage” the property, he would constantly drop by to look over the property (saying he would renovate this or that part of the house or just stay and shoot the bull after I gave him multiple not so subtle hints that I wanted him to leave).

His son had previously lived in the unit, so it seemed he was used to being able to come by whenever he wanted (and as a retiree he very often wanted to stop by).

The renter wanted the landlord to play by the rules.

Well at the time, the state I lived in required 24 hour notice for when a landlord or management company could drop in unannounced

Also, in my lease it specifically stated that any contact between the owner and myself needed to go through the management company.

So, being tired of an old man hanging around my house I called the management company to ask them to remind the owner that all communication from the landlord goes through them and for them to tell him to give 24 hours notice before stopping by as stated in the tenant laws.

He did not like this.

The management company didn’t even play by the rules.

I’ll also say that in college towns, property management companies reeeeally want to know if you’re renewing a lease within a few months of you moving out.

They typically run on a schedule similar to semesters as far as when people move in/out of their properties.

I moved into this place in January, and they went as far as letting themselves into my house to leave a note asking me to let them know whether or not I was renewing my lease two weeks after I had moved in as I had signed a six month lease.

Not sure why they couldn’t just send an email, mail the letter, or call me, but I think they learned their lesson about being pushy that day as I was doing yoga in my underwear that morning and the poor girl they sent over to deliver the renewal letter was probably traumatized for life after seeing my fat butt in downward dog. Anyways, I liked the place enough to renew and signed a year long lease renewal.

There’s a big problem.

About three months later in March I get a text from the owner saying that he heard I was interested in renewing my lease, but that his daughter had been accepted into the University so he wanted her to stay there.

This was confusing to me because a) he should have gone through the management company to talk to me and b) I had a lease contract already signed by the rental company and him.

I call the management company to sort this out and the conversation goes something like this:

The management company is apparently already aware of the problem.

Me: “So the owner of the property I’m living in contacted me to say that he isn’t interested in leasing the property any more.”

Company Representative (CR): “Oh, yes, It looks like the property won’t be available next year.”

Me: “Okay, but I have a lease signed by both your company and the owner for the next year.”

CR: “Well I’m sorry, but the owner no longer wants to lease the property out. We can help you find a new property in the area if you like.”

Time to point out what’s really happening.

I had read the lease pretty closely, and at this point I had the suspicion that the owner and this company thought I would just roll over because they said so.

Unfortunately for them, I was about to come back with some malicious compliance to their own lease.

Me: “So you’re saying that your company is breaking the lease contract we have for next year?”

CR: “WOAH, nobody is talking about breaking any contracts with anybody.”

But that is actually what they were saying.

Me: “That’s what you just said: I have a lease for this place with your company, but the owner doesn’t want to lease. We have a contract, but you’re unable to fulfill the contract because the owner is backing out.”

CR: “No, this is something you need to sort out with the owner because he’s backing out of your lease.”

Me: “By our current and renewed lease agreements, all contact between myself and the owner is required to go through your company. I already renewed the lease for next year with signatures from both your company and the owner. At this point, the disagreement is between you and the owner over whether he wants to back out of the lease we all signed. Good luck sorting it out.”

We went back and forth like this for a while and eventually I got passed up the chain at the management company to one of the owners.

OP noticed something else that’s pretty interesting.

While I was waiting (likely because they were scrambling to come up with some way to convince me my complaint was a lost cause), I was reading my lease and noticed some vague wording having to do with the company being responsible for accommodations “during periods when the property is unavailable or inaccessible.”

I spoke to the management company owner shortly after this:

Management Company Owner (MCO): “I know (Property Owner) personally and there’s no disagreement between us about this property being available. He wants his daughter to live there next year, so we’re not renting it out.”

Me: “That’s your prerogative, but at this point are you breaking our lease contract?”

It was time for OP to share what he saw in the contract.

MCO: “No one is breaking the contract!”

Me: “Okay, then if you’re saying you want to keep our contract, but the house will be inaccessible because the owner won’t rent it out, then you’re willing to put me up somewhere else for the duration of the lease for free.”

I pointed out in the lease where this statement was and the MCO hung up the phone.

I’m no lawyer, but the management company probably could have argued that wasn’t the intention of the clause (seemed to be more pointed at pest infestation but was listed in a general section of the lease).

Here’s how it worked out.

I’m pretty sure they just gave it up because I didn’t hear from them about this after that conversation.

They must have decided it wasn’t worth the hassle from me and told the property owner that they had his signature on a contract they weren’t going to break (or honor under the circumstances of paying for me to live somewhere free for a year).

There were some half hearted texts from the property owner after that threatening to evict me, but I did end up staying another year there.

Good for OP for standing his ground and looking so closely at the contract! Although, it sounds like a pretty annoying place to live when neither the owner nor management company seem to follow their own rules.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person has a theory.

Another person loves how OP outsmarted the management company.

Another person ponders legal action.

This is true.

One person would’ve used the owner’s request as a way to negotiate.

It’s really important to read a lease agreement carefully!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.