Q: Current lease requires 30 day notice but have also signed a new lease that has not started for another 60 days

A: If you provide a 30-day notice to leave based on your current lease, that obligation will end on November 29, 2024. However, since you have already signed a new lease starting the next day, November 30, 2024, you may still be bound by its terms. The new lease is a separate contract, and simply ending the current lease doesn’t automatically cancel the new agreement.

It's important to review the new lease carefully to see if there are any clauses about cancellation or overlapping leases. Sometimes, leases include provisions that address situations where a tenant decides not to move forward with a new agreement. If there are no such clauses, you might be legally obligated to honor the new lease or face potential penalties.

To avoid any complications, consider discussing your plans with your landlord or property manager as soon as possible. They might be willing to negotiate or release you from the new lease agreement. Consulting with a legal professional can also provide you with specific guidance based on your situation and ensure that you understand all your rights and responsibilities.

A: If I understand the question correctly, your new lease begins the following day after the expiration of your existing lease. You may have changed your mind after signing the new lease, with the same landlord at the same property. You want to know if you can avoid the commencement of the new lease ("Lease 2"), and what the implications would be if you provided 30-day notice as to the current lease ("Lease 1") (whether that would serve to inform the landlord that you are not going to be starting the second lease after all).

First, it would be helpful to confirm that there are two separate and distinct leases at issue; normally you would expect an addendum or extension of the first lease, for convenience, simplicity, and continuity. If it were an extension, for example, it would change the outlook on your question and your options.

Second, the leases being separate and distinct, providing notice to landlord on Lease 1 does not necessarily carry legal effect as to Lease 2. That being said, landlord would owe you the security deposit or at minimum the itemized list of expenditures from the security deposit, for Lease 1, within 21 days of the moving out of the unit after November. This does not carry over to Lease 2. This may provide you with leverage, should you need it, for agreeing with landlord to mutually cancel Lease 2.

Third, the length of time since you signed Lease 2 can be important (some leases allow for a small period of time for the lessee to change his/her mind and cancel the contract), as well as whether landlord requires a new security deposit, and whether you have paid that amount already. Depending on that, your potential best angle would be to approach the landlord informally when sending your 30-day notice, and to do so as early as possible, to allow the landlord time to find a replacement tenant.

Ultimately, because we are talking about what sounds like a residential tenancy term lease, the landlord will have little to no incentive to try and force you to honor Lease 2, which it sounds like you only recently signed. Landlord would, upon notice, have to mitigate the harm of your cancellation of the lease, and with a month and a half until that commencement date, landlord would be better served aggressively looking for a new tenant, and even if necessary reducing the rental rate or offering other concessions to do so. The difference between a hundred dollar difference in rent being just over one thousand dollars in a year, the landlord would be facing far more headache and expense in tryin to enforce your residential tenancy agreement, Lease 2.

All this said, this is solely based on the hypothetical and general fact pattern provided, and actual legal advice would require a full understanding of all parties, documents, and contracts associated with the potential dispute. You would be best consulting with a legal professional before relying on or acting upon any of the above.