Ending a tenancy so you can sell

Selling to us doesn't require you to do any of this. We buy as is, and a title company handles the closing paperwork. This guide is only here if you want to understand the rules.

Month-to-month

In Minnesota, either side can end a tenancy at will with written notice. It must run at least as long as the interval between rent due dates, or three months if that's less. With monthly rent, that points to one full rental period, so count carefully from the due date.

Superior differs: Wisconsin asks for at least 28 days' notice, with some exceptions in the statute, ending only at the end of a rental period.

Check your lease too. It can ask for more notice than the statute does. If your lease says something different, an attorney should tell you which applies.

A fixed-term lease with time left

You'll read online that a landlord can end a lease early with a set number of days' notice when selling. We looked at the Minnesota and Wisconsin sections on ending tenancies and found nothing like that. Unless your lease has its own clause on a sale, assume it runs its course.

So you have three honest choices:

• Sell with the lease in place, to a buyer happy to take it.
• Wait it out, if the end date is near enough to live with.
• Ask. A tenant may agree to leave early for moving money, a good reference, or help finding the next place. That's a negotiation, and it must be voluntary. Get it signed by everyone.

When the lease runs out and they stay

In Minnesota, if someone stays past the end of a lease, you can go to court to evict. If they stay on without your express agreement, the law implies a tenancy no longer than the shortest rent interval of the old lease.

Superior differs: on a residential lease, the landlord may elect month-to-month, and accepting rent for a period after expiration counts as that election. One cashed check can create a month-to-month tenancy, unless you've already started removal proceedings.

Unpaid rent

The notice comes first, in writing, and the wording counts.

These are the starting lines for an eviction, and a court decides what happens next. Rent held back over repairs may not be simple nonpayment: Duluth voters passed a repair-and-withhold measure, so talk to an attorney before you send a notice to that tenant. An eviction can take time you can't predict, so it deserves a lawyer, not a form off the internet.

What you must never do

No lockouts. No shutoffs. No removing doors. In Minnesota, taking off doors or locks or cutting utilities is unlawful exclusion, and the tenant can go to court to get back in. Shutting off heat, electricity, gas, or water can cost treble damages or $500, whichever is more, plus attorney's fees. We didn't read the Wisconsin section on this, and we wouldn't try it there either.

Timing matters as well. If a tenant recently complained to an inspector or an agency, be careful. In Minnesota, an eviction or worse terms within 90 days of a complaint puts the burden on the landlord to show it wasn't payback. Minnesota's defense also covers a notice meant to penalize a tenant's good faith attempt to enforce rights under a lease, and a notice to quit served within 90 days of that leaves you to prove it wasn't retaliation. Wanting to sell may be a fine reason, but you'd have to prove it.

Is it worth emptying the building?

Sometimes it isn't. You'd lose rent while it sits and you'd pay for turnover. It can make sense when an owner-occupant buyer would pay more, the unit needs work that can't happen with someone in it, or the tenant is making a sale impossible. It doesn't make sense just because it feels cleaner. Try the worksheet with each version before you send a notice you can't take back.

Who can help

In Duluth, the city's own tenant notice names One Roof's Tenant Landlord Connection and Justice North legal aid. Their listings differ on phone numbers, so use the city notice or their sites.