tenant wants to change to m2m 6 days before end of lease

[Robert Crowley]

Hello all, and thank you for all you do for us newbies. On to it...

Tenants are 6 days from the end of their lease and 2 days from signing for another year with an agreed 2% rent increase. I get a text tonight saying they got a job offer 1.5 hours away and they'd like to go to a m2m lease. My plan is to raise the m2m lease by 9%. (MD law says anything under 10% requires 30 days notice, 60 days for 10+%) I'm not sure I'm doing this legally. Since we have a written (email and text) confirmation of signing another yearly lease, and they are now backing out (I understand why) can I do this?

Bottom line...Can I legally raise rent with 6 days notice? I think I know the answer here, but I may need to hear it from someone else.

Thanks

[Nathan Gesner]

Your agreement was for a one-year renewal with a 2% increase. 

The Tenant can't sign that agreement so now you will have to create a new agreement. Give them the option:

1. Move out at termination and you'll put the property on the market.

2. Sign a new M2M lease at a higher rate

3. Sign the renewal at 2% increase and pay the penalty if they are transferred and have to break the lease.

If you are signing a new M2M with them, it's not a rent increase and therefore not capped by law. It would be a completely new lease, just as if you were placing a new tenant.