Resident Rental Agreements: Termination of Agreements

The resident rental agreement must also contain information about how the agreement may be terminated. It must allow for either the operator or the resident to initiate termination. For most residents, this will mean a process where the resident is ready to move on to another home, such as their own apartment or moving in with friends or family. Or, depending on your program, they may move to a different home in your program at a different level of support.

As far as the resident rental agreement is concerned, the organization must have processes in place for the resident to notify the organization that they are going to be ending their residency.

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The Unhappy Resident

Prevention and engagement is the best strategy to greatly reduce the possibility of an unhappy resident. However, these circumstances do happen. If a resident is unhappy with living at the recovery home and wishes to move out, there needs to be a process for the unhappy resident to notify the organization that they want to move out.

In such an event, the organization and the resident may come to a mutual agreement to end the resident rental agreement early. Recovery homes can make it easy to end the resident agreement. They can allow the resident to get pro-rated rent and security deposits back, allow the resident to remove their property in a reasonable amount of time, provide positive tenant referrals and have processes available to handle such situations amicably.

Making it is as easy as possible is a good idea for both the organization and the resident, especially if the resident may wish to return to recovery housing.

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Resident Leaving Without Notice

As mentioned previously, sometimes residents may leave the home permanently, without notice and without telling anyone where they are going. The resident lease agreement should contain clear details about when and how the organization will consider the resident no longer a tenant and how long the organization will hold resident’s personal property before it is considered abandoned.

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Asking a Resident to Leave

If you do need to use the legal eviction process, seek legal guidance to ensure that you are in compliance with ORC 1923, the section on Ohio Eviction Law.

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Be sure to seek legal advice to ensure that you are keeping all appropriate documentation and understand how the resident agreement may be ended by the operator and the resident.