tenant rights on a month to month lease?

We previously were on a year's lease but it has now gone month to month. The leasing agency has just contacted us and I suspect the owners are going to sell the house. We have a toddler, I'm currently pregnant, and we are planning to move back to the US next summer as soon as my husband finds a job. We're not really in a good position to find a new place to live and certainly cannot sign a lease anywhere (which EVERY leasing agency in our small town requires). It's more of a buyer's town so there are no good short-term renting options. Does anyone know how much notice they have to give us before we are required to leave? Do we have any legal grounds for staying longer? If I wasn't pregnant, we could just speed up the move, but I can't move back without insurance!! On top of this, we will be gone most of December so we will lose a month in the housing search. By the time we are back and able to start searching, we wouldn't even be able to sign a 6 month lease, even if that was allowed.

You would need to check the terms of your lease. It should clearly spell out how much notice the landlord is required to give. There isn't any obligation for them to give more than what is stated.

In all my leases it's been spelled out in the contract. I think on month-to-month it's been a month's notice to move out, but that's for whatever reason the landlord wants, really. Selling, want to rent to their friend Bob, etc. I don't think they're obliged to let you stay beyond the notice period even if you want to and are good tenants.

I'll have to call and ask for a copy--we don't seem to have one, so I'm guessing they forgot to give it to us when we moved in. Not sure what we'll do if it's only a month's notice and we have to be out for Jan 1. We're not even back in the country by then. There is literally no way we  could find a new place in time.

But they haven't even given you notice yet that you have to leave, correct?

not yet, though I suspect they may tomorrow, judging from the message left today. though if it's because they are selling the house then i can only hope they would want to keep us there as long as possible so they're not losing money on the house while waiting for it to sell and that may buy us a few extra months. we leave for the US in something like 10 days so i'm not sure what we could do if it does turn out to just be one month's notice. there are no rental listings in our town for January yet so we couldn't even begin looking for a new place. 

If it has gone periodic, like it sounds like it has then you must give the landlord one month's notice to leave.  He must give you two months notice.

Got the notice today and it was as Shandy said. We are due out by the end of January. That gives us just under a month when we return to find a new place that doesn't require signing a lease and organize a move while pregnant and taking care of a toddler, with no family around to help. Happy Christmas to us.

Tough lilybelle.  Can you maybe do something like two rooms in a long term B&B or flatshare?  These tends to be much more flexible.  Just a thought. 

Our town is so small that there really aren't many options. Pretty much everyone here owns so things like flatshares just don't exist. I'm seeing properties listed at the moment that cost anywhere from 300 to 600 pounds a month more than we currently pay and they don't include white goods! I cannot see us paying that much more and buying appliances. I've already accepted that we won't be lucky enough to find a place that includes a tumble drier like we have now and will probably have to give up cloth diapering as I can't keep up with all of our laundry and cloth diapers in winter with no way to dry but I hope we can at least find a place that includes washing machine and a fridge!!! Having some cramping today so I'm trying not to think too much about it as the stress isn't good for my pregnancy...I'm at least grateful we have January to continue to search for a solution. Just wish we had family around to help  

Does your landlord know that you are on your way back to the states? Could you maybe mention to them that you would love to stay on, you will keep the flat in showable condition, etc. while he is trying to sell it?

I did mention our situation and asked if they would consider letting us stay until July. I'm just waiting to hear back from the leasing agency with an answer, though I suspect the answer is no as the owners live in Spain and I believe they may want to move into the house to fix it up themselves before selling it. Also, we were told it was a long-term rental and they turned down an offer to buy the place just a little over a year ago because they wanted to keep it as rental income and I suspect they must need the money now if they are selling, so they may not want to delay. This happened to us during my last pregnancy when our landlords divorced and they had to sell to divide the property up! We do not have good luck with renting while pregnant!!

Hi Lilybelle,

I'm a solicitor and I deal with landlord/tenant issues regularly. I'm also an expat with personal experience of annoying landlord problems!

If you want to send me a private message with a phone number, I can try to give you a ring in the next few days. I'd be happy to have a quick chat (no fee) about the issues generally. It may not be worth instructing a lawyer formally, but you may yet have some options still available to you...

Scott