Lucas A. Ferrara in New York Times Real Estate Section, ANALYZING A LEASE RENEWAL CLAUSE, June 22, 2003.

Analyzing a Lease Renewal Clause

June 22, 2003

Q. I live in a two-family house where both apartments are rented under a standard store-bought lease with a renewal clause. My lease period is March 15 to Feb.14. A month after the lease automatically renewed, I received a letter from my landlord informing me of a rent increase to take effect on April 15. Having paid the increase, does this now make me a month-to-month tenant? If I wish to move, may I do so at any time by giving the landlord one month's notice? . . . Jane Harvey, Forest Hills.

A. Lucas Ferrara, a Manhattan lawyer who is publisher of the Landlord-Tenant Practice Reporter, a journal for lawyers, said that a renewal clause basically continues the tenancy on the same terms and conditions contained in the original lease. In most cases, however, the renewal clause provides for future rent increases and may specify other changes to the lease agreement.

So, Mr. Ferrara said, if the renewal clause referred to by the letter writer provided for the rent increase she began paying on April 15, it is likely that she would not be a month-to-month tenant, but would instead be a tenant under lease for whatever period the original lease or the renewal clause provided.

On the other hand, Mr. Ferrara said, if the renewal clause does not provide for a rent increase or is ambiguous in that regard, it is possible that the renewal clause would not be binding. "It would basically be an agreement to agree, which is, as a matter of law, no agreement at all," he said. And if that were the case, Mr. Ferrara said, the letter writer would be considered a month-to-month tenant. While a month's notice is required from tenants vacating apartments elsewhere in the state, there is no requirement that a month-to-month tenant in New York City give such a notice.