Moving Guide

Things to keep in mind when ending or beginning a tenancy:

During the course of the year many of you will be leaving your current rentals and/or moving to new ones. These tips will help you protect your legal and financial interests during the transition.

Always make written documentation of every significant occurrence between you and your landlord. Always keep copies of all landlord/tenant documents!

Ending a Tenancy

Giving Notice
If you have a term lease set to expire, then you probably don't need to worry about providing notice. If you are on a month-to-month, you will need to give a 30-day notice. The notice should be written and you should keep a copy of it.

The notice should state the exact termination date which should be no less than 30 days from the day the notice is provided. The notice should use the word "termination." Termination is different than moving out. Someone who moves out still owes rent. Someone who's terminated doesn't.

If the notice is mailed rather than hand-delivered, then the relevant period needs to be at least 33 days and the notice needs to mention that the extra three days were added and explain why.

Your notice should also include a forwarding address where the landlord can send your security deposit. It should indicate a date and time at which you would like to conduct a joint move-out inspection. (See more about the move-out inspection below.)

Ideally, hand deliver the notice and have the landlord or manager sign your copy acknowledging the day on which it was received and agreeing to the proposed termination date.

Cleaning
You should make some effort to clean the premises prior to vacating. If the rental agreement makes you responsible for the grounds, then you should also make some effort to mow the lawn. After you've made these efforts, you should take pictures. This is very important. When a landlord asserts cleaning and repair charges of $1,000 and says you trashed the place, a picture can be worth its weight in gold.

Even if the landlord isn't holding a large security deposit you should make some effort to clean. Otherwise the landlord may bill you for cleaning and repairs in excess of the deposit. Some landlords have a nasty habit of charging tenants $30/hour for any labor that the landlord has to perform.

Aside from taking pictures that document your good-faith efforts, you should arrange a joint walk-through.

Joint Walk-Through
Bring two copies of an inventory sheet. You can get a sample inventory sheet from the Rental Information Office, Suite 5, EMU. The sheet has spaces on it to make notations regarding everything in the house/apartment.

One purpose of the walk-through is to get the landlord to confirm that specific things and areas are being returned in an acceptable condition. Another purpose is to have the landlord commit to an upper limit on the charges that he or she will assert against your deposit.

Ideally, you will reach an agreement with your landlord that any remaining work should not cost more than "x" dollars. You will write that down on the inventory report and you will both sign it. You will then keep on copy for yourself.

If you reach that sort of agreement, the landlord should be able to cut you a deposit refund check on the spot, but that rarely happens.

Deposit Refunds and Accounting Statements
Within 31 days of the termination of your tenancy the landlord is required to give you your deposit or a written accounting for however much of it the landlord keeps.

You should keep a copy of any refund check, any accounting statement and the envelope they were delivered in. The postmark is often crucial evidence as to whether the landlord complied with the statutory time line.

If the landlord doesn't return the deposit or the accounting on time, he or she owes the tenant twice the amount withheld.

If you think your landlord has withheld too much of your deposit or asserted unreasonable charges against you, make an appointment at ASUO Legal Services.

Breaking a Lease
If you have to move out at the beginning of summer, but your lease runs until the end of summer, make an appointment with ASUO Legal Services. We may be able to help you. Your landlord may have committed some technical violation entitling you to early termination; or, the landlord may be obliged to accept an assignment or sublet, even though the lease seems to say they won't. Alternatively, we might be able to negotiate a reasonable termination penalty or just advise you on how to protect what limited rights you have in the event of an unjustified abandonment.

(HINT:If you think you're going to have to break a lease, it's a good idea to start advertising for potential replacements right now. It doesn't cost much, and it might save you three months' rent.)

Starting a Tenancy

If you're signing a new rental agreement in the near future, this information will be important to you.

Choosing a Place
Ask around. Before signing an agreement, try to talk with the previous tenant or the neighbors and see what they think of the landlord. Find out about any habitability problems, bugs, mice, abuse of privacy, etc.

We discourage renting a room in a landlord's house or next door to a landlord. The rent is often less, but there can be a lack of privacy and there seems to be a tendency for landlords in that situation (even old, grandmotherly types) to abuse power. Similarly, be cautious about living above, below, or next to property managers.

Application/Screening Fee
If the landlord takes an application/screening fee or a holding deposit, keep any and all written explanations provided concerning those payments. If the landlord takes such payments and does not provide adequate disclosures, he or she owes you the payment plus $100.

Rental Agreement
Read before signing it. Be clear whether it is a month-to-month or a term lease. Understand that if you commit to a term lease, you're potentially liable for many months' rent if you have to break the lease. Understand that if you accept a month-to-month agreement, the landlord can kick you out for almost any reason or no reason at all during the middle of a semester by providing 30-days' notice.

Getting it in Writing
Any assurances that your landlord makes that are important to you should be in writing. Have it added to the rental agreement and initialed by all parties. If the landlord is taking any deposits or fees, ask what they're for. If the written agreement doesn't say what they're for, add an explanation and have it initialed by all parties.

Roommates
Understand that co-tenants are jointly and severally liable for things. That means that if one of you flakes out, skips town, or burns the house down, the landlord can sue whichever tenant has the most money for what his or her co-tenant did.

Understand also that co-tenants are "co-adventurers." That means that if you vacate during the middle of a lease term, you still owe your co-tenants your share of the rent until they replace you. They don't have to replace you at all if they can't find a new person with whom they get along.

Move-In Inventory
Do one! See move-out inventory above. Do a move-in inventory to protect yourself from being charged at the end of the tenancy for problems that existed when you moved in.

One common complaint I hear is, "My landlord's charging me $300 for cleaning, but the place was a pig sty when I moved in and I cleaned before I moved out." Technically, you're only liable if you don't return the premises as clean as you received it. The problem arises when there is documentation of the premises' condition at the end of the tenancy, but not at the beginning.

Do an inventory at commencement (beginning) of the tenancy. Be thorough. Be picky. Get the landlord to sign it. KEEP A COPY!

If anything is dirty enough or broken enough that it will show up in a picture, take a picture. If you have to spend time cleaning, keep a log of your time and receipt for any cleaning expenses.

Send the landlord a letter noting those expenditures of time and money, noting that you will want them taken into account at the end of the tenancy during the deposit refund process.

Complaints/Repair Requests
Whenever you make one, confirm it with a written notice and keep a copy of it. Experience has shown that verbal requests are not acted on as promptly as written ones.

This information is not intended to provide legal advice. Any incidental fee-paying University of Oregon student who has questions about renter rights may call ASUO Legal Services at 346-4273 to arrange an appointment.

Information disseminated in this website does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney/client relationship. This page is for information purposes only. For legal advice, contact an attorney licensed in your state.