lease or month-to-month?

Residential Lease agreement between landlord and tenant.

o Notice was served verbally to landlord’s sons on Jan 7, 2008, since Landlord could not be reached.
o Tenant moved out on Jan. 27th, 2008, returned the key with the receipt.
o Living accommodations are not conducive to studying in this apartment:
(1) Landlord’s 2 sons, Adam and Jon , occupy a room and much of the living room with the television usually on
(2) Tenant share a small room with another guy with no rooms for desk.
o Tenant provided a list of qualified potential renters to landlord prior to his moving out, but no one on the list was chosen.
o Tenant is transferring from Westwood to Pasadena to attend a different school
o Therefore tenant Claims for : Security Deposit $675 + Key Deposit $50 + 4 Days Rent (Jan. 28-31) $90 = $815.
Can it be interpreted as month-to-month rental agreement although "lease" shown on the lease agreement??

[OHlandlord]

I'm not sure I understand the question. If the agreement is marked as a lease, what is the term of the lease? Beginning & ending dates? Is it 6 months, 1 yr? If the lease is a true lease and has not yet expired, the reasons given are not sufficent to break a lease.

Notice was served to LL's son. How old is the LL's son and does the son live with the LL or is he another tenant in the rental? If the son is of legal age and lives with the LL, notice can be considered served (although it would be better to give notice in writing.) If the son is under 18 or the son does not live with the LL (or is another tenant) notice may be improperly served. Is this son your LL or is his father the actual LL? Additionally, what state are you in? (I'm not familiar with Westwood.) Some states require notice to be served on the 1st (or rent due date) of the month. These states are called term states. If you live in a term state and served notice after the rent due date, it does not take effect until the next rent due date. Other states are day for day states and you may give notice at any time. Also, different states have different required notice periods. How much notice did your lease require?

The effect of the TV set or the space for a desk are immaterial to the rental agreement. There is no mention of a TV-free rental area or details of space for a desk in the contract is there? You had time to preview the unit (or should have done so) and gauge whether or not it met your needs prior to signing. Also, changing schools or jobs is not sufficient reason to break a lease.

The list of names provided to the LL, was it given to the LL or his son? Merely providing the list does not mean the people on the list are qualified to rent the unit. Since you have not seen their appliactions nor screened these people (checked prior rental histories, LL recommendations, verified employments, checked credit and criminal histories, etc.) you do not know if any person on the list was qualified or met the LL's rental criteria. You merely provided a list of interested applicants. The LL must screen each to see if they are, in fact, qualified.

Finally, the LL has a period of time allowed for discovery of damages to the unit before he must send a deposit disposition statement to you. Depending on the state where this rental was, he may have from 14 to 60 days to return this (and a few states have no limit on his time.) You should have provided forward address in writing to him to send this statement.

If the state was a term state and you vacated before the notice took effect, you would still owe rent for the period of required notice. If you vacated early after you gave notice, you are not entitled to a refund for the days chose to leave early. That was your choice. If this was a lease you broke, you will be responsible until the LL finds a qualified tenant to re-rent the room. You should be entitled to the key deposit if you have a receipt to show that you returned all the keys issued to you.