My tenant wants to extend her lease for another year. 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?
When changes are being made to a lease you can always either amend the existing lease agreement or create a new lease. If the number and complexity of changes being made would be significant relative to the overall terms and conditions of the lease, it is usually best to create a new lease document. Many times it is often simplest to execute a new agreement rather than update the existing lease agreement. However in your case, there is only one simple change being made, you could 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.