Walk It Through: The Landlord With A Key
Entries without notice, a showing to buyers, repeated demands, and a tenant who stays past the end.
A tenant comes home to find the landlord inside, checking the smoke detectors, with no notice given.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One lease. Emergencies, the landlord's remedies for a refused entry, and a sale of the building to a new owner are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- HoldoverA tenant staying without consent after the term ends. If it is willful and not in good faith, the tenant may owe up to three months' rent or three times the actual damages, and attorney's fees.
- Liquidated damagesA sum fixed by law rather than proven loss. A tenant unlawfully removed, excluded, or cut off from an essential service recovers three months' periodic rent as liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney's fee.
- Periodic rental dateThe date rent falls due. A month-to-month tenancy ends by written notice given at least thirty days before the periodic rental date the notice names.