Home > Research Legal Advice > Landlord / Tenant > Is my lease valid? ( Is it actually a one year lease or month to month l...
Asked about 1 year ago - Los Angeles, CA
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I find something online at http://www.caltenantlaw.com/breaklease.htm says that:
Some rental agreements look like leases, but are actually month-to-month tenancies:
It may say that your free month of rent is payable unless you stay for X months; this is a monthly tenancy, with an illegal attempt to get around the nonrefundable deposit laws.
We got $750 move in special when we signed the lease and this amount was deducted from our second month rent. On our lease document it says: Tenant shall have a rent concession of $500 per month for a period of 0 months. Concession expires:(date we signed the lease).
We recently break the lease early and this $500 was deduct from our security deposit.
Is my lease a valid one year lease or it's actually a month to month lease then
It sounds more like a one year lease, but no one can really tell you for sure without actually reading the entire document.
Determine whether the agreement is valid would also require an attorney to review it.
Likewise, whether the landlord was legally entitled to deduct from your security deposit also requires an attorney to have more information.
Without knowing the actual wording in the "lease" this question is impossible to answer accurately. Landlord often use "creative" means to attract new tenants and to keep them as tenants.
In this case, it is not clear whether the landlord violated a statute designed to protect tenants. A real estate lawyer should be consulted to review the terms of the lease.
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