Can a Landlord Break a Lease to Sell the Property?
A lease is a legal contract. It cannot be broken under ordinary circumstances, such as the actual or prospective sale of the property. However, a lease does not prohibit a property's sale. In a sale, the lease transfers to the new owner, who becomes legally obligated to honor its terms. Essentially, a tenant maintains the same set of rights whether the property remains under the same ownership or not.
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Lease Term
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Although a lease may be for only a month, many residential leases are for a one-year term. After the term is up, some landlords and tenants sign new one-year leases. Others do not: all clauses in these leases, except for the term of the rental -- which has expired -- remain in effect on a month-to-month basis. If you have a lease for a specific time period and the sale occurs before the lease term has elapsed, the new landlord cannot evict you during the remainder of the term unless you fail to pay rent or violate other lease provisions.
Month-to-Month Leases
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If you do not have a written lease or if you have a month-to-month lease, the existing or new landlord can ask you to leave or evict you without cause using whatever notice is required in your state or city. Usually, such a notice is 30 days, but it varies from state to state. In California, for instance, a 60-day notice is required if you have lived in the unit for a year or more and the prospective buyer does not plan to occupy the unit himself.
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Exceptions
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Some leases include a lease termination clause that specifies conditions under which a lease may be terminated. One condition that may be included is the sale of the building. When the lease is month-to-month or there is no lease, a local rent control ordinance may prohibit evictions without just cause (such as failure to pay rent). Under these circumstances, neither the current nor future landlord can evict you just because the building is being sold.
Suggestions
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If you know your building is going on the market and you do not have a lease for a specified duration beyond one month, ask your landlord if he would be willing to sign a new one-year or six-month lease. He is not obligated to do this, but you won't know how he will respond to the request until you make it. When the building is sold, approach the new landlord and let him know you'd like to stay in the unit with a new lease. To avoid an immediate vacancy, he might be willing to sign a lease right away.
Warnings
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Regardless of what your lease requires and what rent control regulations apply, any landlord may evict you for failure to pay rent or live up to the other terms in your lease. Make very sure you continue to comply with your lease to ensure that all existing eviction prohibitions remain in place.
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References
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