EveryBody's Guide to the Law

a prospective tenant. A landlord cannot refuse to rent the apartment to you because of your
race, national origin, religion, or sex. In some states, except in senior-only complexes, a landlord
usually cannot turn you down (or end your lease) just because you have children, even if
the apartments are advertised as adults-only.
Animals are quite a different matter. Landlords have the right to limit or prohibit animals
on their property. You’ll usually need the landlord’s written consent to have a pet live with
you. You’ll also probably have to pay a higher security deposit to cover any damage the animal
may do to the premises.
TYPES OF LEASES
The two most common types of leases are the “month-to-month” lease and a lease for a specific
period of time—often six months or a year. A month-to-month lease, or “periodic tenancy,”
is one that continues until the tenant or the landlord notifies the other that he or she is
terminating the lease. A periodic tenancy is renewed automatically for another term if neither
party gives the other “timely” notice to end it. How much notice do you have to give your
landlord—or does your landlord have to give you—to end the lease? If it’s a month-to-month
lease or greater (for instance, year to year), only thirty days’ notice before the lease ends usually
is required, unless the written lease agreement provides for a longer time. Some states
require the landlord to give the tenant sixty days’ notice. But if it’s a week-to-week tenancy,
only seven days’ notice by either party is needed.
A tenancy for a definite time—a “tenancy for years”—is a lease for a certain period of time:
one year, five years, two months, even fifteen days—any definite time period. (But when you
go to a hotel, motel, or inn and request a room for, say, three days, this does not create a tenancy
for years; you merely receive a “license” to use the room.) When the last day of this type
of lease arrives, the lease ends automatically. Neither landlord nor tenant has to notify the
other that the lease is over; the tenant is expected to be out of the apartment unless a new
arrangement has been made.
Two other types of tenancies less frequently encountered are “tenancies at will” and “tenancies
at sufferance.” In a tenancy at will you can live in the apartment for as long as the landlord
says. (Some tenancies at will are at the will of the tenant; you can live there as long as you
want.) A tenancy at will ends when either you or the landlord dies, when the landlord sells
the property, when the landlord tells you to leave, or when you move out. Many states require
that the landlord give you notification of a certain amount of time—such as thirty or sixty
days—that the lease is over. Other states still apply the old common law rule that a tenancy at
will ends immediately when the lease expires. In other words, you have to pack up and get off
the property without delay when the landlord tells you to leave.
A tenancy at sufferance arises when you stay in the apartment without paying rent after the
210 Everybody’s Guide to the Law