My Tenant Wants to Extend her Lease?
Question
My tenant wants to extend her lease. The only item on the old lease that will change is the lease term. Do I have to enter into a new lease, or can I do a short amendment for the existing lease?
Answer
When changes are being made to a lease (or any other contract) you can always either amend the existing contract or create a new document. It is usually best to create a new lease document when the number and complexity of changes being made is significant relative to the overall document. If there have been changes to the lease agreement since the lease was signed, it is often simplest to execute a new agreement rather than update the existing lease agreement. There are no set rules regarding the decision point, but for your case, with only one simple change being made, one would usually do an amendment.
Be sure that the amendment adequately refers to the original lease agreement by date, tenant name, rental unit address, and states that all other terms of the lease remain as before.