I've lived in an apartment for the past 4 years. The last cycle I renewed my lease for 10 months and stated I would be leaving for ST Louis at the end of the term. Now my term is ending in a month and a half and they say that since I haven't provided a 60 day notice to vacate that I have to pay for an extra month at month to month rates. They also told me that if I got them the notice today it would not go into effect until the beginning of next month, effectively making it an 80 day notice. This seems preposterous to me. Isn't the fact that my lease is ending a notice that I will be vacating? Is there anything that I can do about this other than bend over and take it? Thanks in advance.

Even if your lease is ending you still have to give notice. You should verify in your signed rental agreement what the requested timeframe is for that notice, don't just take the managements word for it. The notice should also take affect from the day you give it, at least that is how it works out here in California.

I agree with Blue.

Not an expert in this area however common sense tells me that if your lease states that you have to give a 60 day notice you would be required to do so. Especially if your lease says that an automatic renewal may be involved.

This depends on what your lease says. If the lease says that you are required to give 60 days written notice of non renewal, then they are right and you will owe the second month's rent. Now if you gave them written notice when you signed the lease that you would not renew that would have been sufficient. If you have copies of correspondence stating that you wanted a 10 month renewal because you would be leaving town at the end of April, you might be able to argue that you gave sufficient notice.

To sum up, if the lease supports what they are saying then you are stuck.

Since we can't read your lease, it is not possible to give an exact answer, but yes it is a normal and common clause in many leases that even at the end if you do not plan on renewing you have to give notice

Since we can't read your lease, it is not possible to give an exact answer, but yes it is a normal and common clause in many leases that even at the end if you do not plan on renewing you have to give notice

The language in the lease is as follows "We must receive advance written notice of your move-out date. The advance notice must be at least the number of days of notice required in paragraph 3 (60) or in special provisions -- even if the Lease Contract has become a month-to-month lease. If a move out notice is received on the first, it will suffice for move-out on the last day of the month of intended move-out, provided that all other requirements below are met... " below requirements (must be last of the month, must be in writing, must not terminate contract sooner than the term)

My question, I guess, is that if I have given them a 60 day notice on the 10th, they can charge me for the whole month of May? I've offered to pay for 10 days of may. They don't expressly state that if you turn it in on the 2nd that is not processed until the 1st (which is their stated policy to me over the phone), but I'm just a molecular geneticist and this legalese makes my head spin.

Sorry, but they can require that you are responsible for the two rental periods after notice.