We are on an oral month to month lease. We are in the process of purchasing a home and anticipate a January closing. Date is not finalized. Are we responsible fir paying the entire months rent if we give a 15 day notice. Or can we pay for the days we occupied the residence?

Hello T:

Nahh.. You owe the full months rent.. It IS month to month. Not HALF month to HALF month. In fact, you may be liable for another months rent beyond that, because you didn't give 30 day's notice. You gave a half month. But, your agreement is NOT half month to half month. It's a FULL month to a FULL month.

excon

In all likelihood, what Excon said.

But it would be more probable that you would get an accurate answer if you would give us a clue what state or country you are in.

And, by-the-way, a "lease" would be in writing. What you have is a tenancy at will.

My opinion is that you are responsible for a full 30 day notice. For example, if you give notice on January 15th it is legal notice as of February 1st because you are the 1st to the end of the month. You would then owe all of January and all of February, your lease expiring at the end of the legal 30 days, which is February 28.

JudyKayTee, that does not apply in California. There you can give a 30 day notice at any time during the month and you are only responsible for 30 days.

To the OP: We need to know the state where the property is located before we can give you an accurate answer but most likely it is a minimum of 30 days.

Also if you have not given notice, since it is already into January now, you may even owe for Feb also.

In my rentals, you can not give a notice on Jan 5th to move on on 30th, you would have had to give it on the 31 or at least the 1st. For a full month notice, 1st to 1st.

I echo the other responders. Since you have no written lease, local laws will dictate your rights and obligations. Hopefully you will return to give us your general location.

Since you are on a month to month tenancy, then you are subject to the laws governing such a tenancy. That can range from a 15 day notice prior to the end of the rental period (FL) to a 30 day notice (many states) to 60 days depending on how long you have occupied the premises.

I'm not sure where you got the idea you could just give 15 days notice. However, it is possible you have an understanding and accommodating landlord who will be willing to let you give a 15 day notice. But unless you do, I can't imagine you not being responsible for, at the least, the full month of January.