Q: What does it mean by "no longer have available lease space for the next year"?
I have lived in my current apartment in Texas for about three years. It's been a 12-month renewal for the last two years, but I was offered 11 months this time. They said they couldn't offer a 12-month lease because they no longer have spaces available for more leases for the next year, which I've never heard of in the decades of my apartment life in another state. Meanwhile, they said I can renew the lease again next year. Does what they are saying make sense?
A:
The phrase "no longer have available lease space for the next year" is not a legal term and has no specific legal meaning.
Many apartment communities that work on a leasing grid want the number of renewals (and therefore number of possible move outs) to be even across every month. It's better to have 25 leases coming up for renewal in November and 25 coming up for renewal in December than to have 5 in November and 45 in December.
An apartment community is always going to lose a percentage of its residents no matter what it offers. So it eases the potential loss to the apartment community to even out the number of leases expiring per month. As a minor side benefit it keeps the office from having to deal with a huge influx of move outs and move ins in a single month.
So let's say that you want to sign a 12 month lease that ends in June. But the apartment community is already way over the number of leases expiring for that month. If they have fewer leases coming up for renewal on a 10 month lease (April) then the shorter lease term will often times be offered a better rate.
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