If you are looking to write a lease extension agreement, you might have looked at other lease extension addendums or lease extension forms. These documents can be helpful in your process of drafting a lease extension letter, but there are nuances to the different kinds of lease extensions that you might want to create. A residential lease extension or a commercial lease extension agreement are very different things, and you will want to be sure that you understand the differences before you start writing yours.
This guide will help you to create a lease extension agreement that can be used in a variety of circumstances, and that will hold up when you need to bring the document to court in the future. This is a very important document for those who are changing the nature of a lease arrangement, and since it changes the original document, it needs to be made correctly.
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- 1 Lease Extension Addendum
- 2 What is a lease extension agreement?
- 3 Lease Extension Agreements
- 4 What is a lease renewal agreement?
- 5 Reasons that a lease extension agreement can be a great idea
- 6 Lease Renewal Agreements
- 7 How do I write a letter to extend my lease?
- 8 What if I want to extend the lease, but the tenant has not asked me?
- 9 Lease Extension Forms
- 10 How long does my lease extension offer have to last?
- 11 Lease Extension Agreements Can be Essential to Those Who Manage Properties
Lease Extension Addendum
By State
What is a lease extension agreement?
This legal document is used to create a change to a lease that extends it beyond the original term of the lease. There are various names for lease extension agreements, and you can use any of these different names interchangeably to refer to this document. The nature or function of your lease extension will not be changed even if you use these names for the document in question.
- Lease extension forms
- Lease extension letters
- Rental lease extension forms
- Residential lease extension agreements
- Commercial lease extension forms
Landlords need to know how to use these documents properly and how to write them for each property that they manage or own. This is a key part of maintaining a legal document that protects a lease. If you alter the nature of your lease by extending it without any documentation, you cannot be sure that the lease agreement will hold up in court if you state that this was agreed upon verbally.
Lease extensions are key to making sure that your existing lease is not invalidated when you change the terms of the lease with regard to the endpoint of the lease. It is never a good idea to let a tenant stay in a rental property without a new contract on file. Thankfully, with a lease extension agreement, you can keep all the other details of the first contract in place and just alter the language related to the duration of the lease as needed.
While this might not always be the best choice for every kind of lease, it is usually very simple to create this kind of legal document and to use it for your purposes as you manage a property that you are renting out.
Lease Extension Agreements
What is a lease renewal agreement?
The lease renewal agreement is used to create a new lease that picks up where the existing one leaves off. This can be useful in cases where the same tenant wants to keep renting, but the costs related to renting the property have gone up. This can also be a good time to change a part of the relationship between the vendor and the renter. It is really easy to just use a Lease Extension Agreement, but that is not always the right choice depending on other factors.
Many renters expect that they cannot extend their original lease due to changes in the cost of living and other challenges. This means that you will likely not even be asked about a lease extension instead of a lease renewal. There are some situations where the original details and stipulations of the original contract are still valid, and you might just want to make the existing lease last for longer.
Reasons that a lease extension agreement can be a great idea
These agreements are not used as commonly as renewal agreements, but that does not mean that they are not just as effective. These are the most common reasons that you might want to use a lease extension in place of a complete renewal.
- Saves time and money
- Is easier to draft and to execute
- Is a great way to keep a tenant that you like a lot
- Is perfect for business arrangements that are not complicated
- Allows you to change the end date of a lease from a date like a holiday or some other notable occasion
- Reduces vacancy
- Helps to keep difficult-to-rent locations filled
This is one of the easiest ways to make your lease last for another set duration of choice. Make sure that you know how to write it so that you are not troubled by problems down the road that could have been avoided.
Lease Renewal Agreements
How do I write a letter to extend my lease?
These are the key items that must be included in the letter to extend a lease. You cannot leave these items out, or you will run into problems that you might want to just avoid.
- Check out the Original Lease. This is important, and you need to be sure that you look at the original lease when you are considering an extension. There might be clauses or other factors that you just don’t really want to keep in the lease when it is extended. In this case, a new lease agreement might be the best solution.
- Add Landlord Details. Make sure that your complete business name or your complete legal name is on the document, as well as your address and contact information. The clearer you are about who the landlord is, the better, as this will impact the communication between you and the renter.
- Add Tenant Information. This is the section where you list all the tenants that are on the lease contract. You will need to use full legal names and correct addresses and phone numbers. This is key so that your extension will match the existing lease agreement. You might need to indicate parties that have changed their name through marriage or choice as their new name with the former name in brackets. The original lease agreement might have this other name on it, and you do not want to cause any confusion.
- The Date. This is the effective date of the change to the lease, not necessarily the date that the letter or template was written. Make sure that you are clear about this date so that you do not cause there to be some days when there is no rental agreement or lease agreement in place. The effective date of the new lease should pick up right where the old one ended. Be sure that you are aware of this original end date so that you do not leave the tenant in a really sticky situation should a claim need to be filed or some other issues crop up. This can also impact you as the person or business renting to this person, so be sure that you do not take this lightly.
- Explain Any Changes. This is the section where you will explain what has changed about the term of the lease. You will indicate when the first lease ended, and the new one began. You will also need to indicate the new endpoint of the lease and the new payment method for the lease if there have been alterations to this part of the agreement as well. Normally, the only change will be the end date of the lease, but you might need to be clear if there are other alterations that are going to be made as the lease proceeds. These cannot be major changes, however, without just starting a new lease.
- Legal Information. If there are any laws or legal clauses that you need to reference. This is the time to make sure that you add these details to the document. This might vary from state to state, so be sure that you are clear about this part of the information needed for your document. You cannot reference laws that do not apply to your rental agreement, and you cannot cite laws from other locations that suit your needs better than the laws that actually govern your rental agreement.
- Signatures. The signature section needs to be signed and dated by both you and the tenant. This is important as any legal document that is not signed is not valid. Be sure that you do not skip this critical step in the process of making this kind of important change to your lease document.
What if I want to extend the lease, but the tenant has not asked me?
Always make sure that you and your tenant have clear lines of communication open at all times. The clearer that you both are about any of the factors that go into the creation of the lease extension, the better. Your tenant needs to be sure that they want to extend the lease, and they need to be aware that you are willing to offer this service to them. Some people do not even realize that you can elect to do this and that a new lease does not have to be signed to remain in the same location. As stated before, you will always have the option to just create a new lease agreement if too many things have changed about the rental situation at this location, but if you do not wish to do this more complex process, an extension can be perfect for your needs.
Lease Extension Forms
How long does my lease extension offer have to last?
This is really up to you as the landlord. You can choose to extend your lease for just a few months, or you can offer another entire year to the tenant in question. This is your decision and there are usually no limitations on the way that you handle this kind of extension process. Be sure that you are prepared to keep the entire lease the same way and to simply extend it, however. If something should change in the future that might make the cost of renting much higher, for example, being willing to extend the lease agreement for a long period of time might not be wise.
Always be careful about extending a lease agreement with a renter who is not a great fit for your property and for you personally. There are some people that pay their rent on time and are otherwise pleasant to deal with but who do not have the same goals for your property as you do. Be sure that you do not feel like you have to extend the lease on any of your properties out of pity or some other motivation. You can always tell the tenant that they must renew their lease, and that is that.
Lease Extension Agreements Can be Essential to Those Who Manage Properties
If you have a property that you manage and that is rented to tenants, there are instances where you might need to extend the lease to allow them to find a new place to live or in order to attend to some other challenge related to renting out the unit or location. Be sure that you are not just extending the lease of every party that rents from you, however. There are often increases to rent costs and other changes that need to be made, which can make a lease renewal much more favorable for you as the property owner.
Being sure about how to write a lease extension is really important because this alters the original lease agreement and extends it for a set period of time. You do not want to write this document incorrectly and change the nature of the original lease in a way that makes it invalid. Being sure about how to write this important document is important if you are going to draft it yourself.
