Also known as: year to year tenancy · yearly tenancy · periodic tenancy · tenancy from year to year
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A periodic tenancy that automatically continues for successive one-year periods unless terminated by proper notice at the end of a period. The tenancy arises when a tenant remains in possession after a fixed-term lease expires and the landlord accepts rent payments on a yearly basis.
Yasmine Young signed an oral agreement to lease a warehouse from Yosemite Mining for three years but never reduced it to writing. She took possession, paid annual rent that Yosemite accepted for two years. When Yosemite tried to evict her on sixty days' notice, the court treated the arrangement as a year-to-year tenancy.
Yahya Yusuf held a written two-year lease from Yellowstone Bank that ended August 31. He stayed in the building and continued sending monthly rent checks, which the bank deposited without protest for the next eleven months. When the bank later sought immediate possession, Yusuf argued he held a year-to-year tenancy that required six months' notice before termination.
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Half a year's notice must be given to end a year-to-year tenancy. The notice must specify termination on the final day of the period. Shorter periodic tenancies require notice equal to the length of the period, capped at six months.
Acceptance of rent after a fixed lease expires generally creates a periodic tenancy measured by the rent interval. When rent is paid and accepted on a yearly basis, the result is a year-to-year tenancy. Courts look to the parties' conduct and the original lease terms to determine the period.
An oral lease for more than one year is unenforceable under the statute of frauds. If the tenant takes possession and the landlord accepts rent paid on a yearly basis, a year-to-year periodic tenancy arises with all lease terms except duration. Substantial performance clearly referable to the lease can make the full term enforceable.