Lease ends at the end of the month. Verbally agreed to pay monthly moving forward, with 30 days notice. Am I under legal obligation?

Question

My current one year lease ends at the end of this month (i.e., in 3 days). Because I was having trouble finding a new place I called the owners and asked if it would be possible to stay on with my current place month to month. They said that would be fine, they just want 30 days notice before I leave. I can't recall the conversation exactly but I believe that I agreed to this. This was all done over the phone, I have not signed anything new.

Last minute a new place came through. So I'm signing a lease on the new place tomorrow that starts at the first of the month. I obviously no longer have any need for month to month renting at the old place.

I'm just wondering if by "verbally agreeing" to give them 30 days notice moving forward I would be legally obliged to pay for another month's rent there to cover that 30 days? Or would that not matter since nothing new was signed and my current lease is still in force? (I.e., I haven't actually started a new month yet under the month to month agreement?)

This is all happening in the suburbs of Chicago if that is relevant.

Answer 1

First, you will need to look at your existing lease. Most leases automatically transfer to month-to-month after the initial term ends. It is quite probable that your landlord said "fine" to the month-to-month extension because it was already part of your existing lease.

Second, you will need to look at your existing lease and see what notification was required for you to move out. Typically, a lease transitions to month-to-month and in your lease it probably already said that you needed to provide 30 days notice even if you were leaving at the end of the lease's original term.

Third, yes, you are on the hook for rent until you give 30 days notice. Your "verbal agreement" is a contract and your landlord agreed to allow you to stay in the apartment as long as you gave him 30 days notice before moving out and paid your rent every month.

Most of this is probably already spelled out in your current lease. Even if it isn't, you have indicated that you have a verbal contract with your landlord.

Answer 2

Also to note is that "30 days" is a bit of misnomer because if you give notice on the 15th you don't get to stop paying rent on the following 15th. 30 days notice is basically 30 days plus how ever many days until the end of the month. This is obvious to some but not always apparent.