If both tenant and landlord have lost the apartment lease , does the?
A2A The circumstances under which this question is arising are not entirely clear. What does appear to be clear, however, is that there was a written lease agreement at the time the tenancy began, but each partys copy of that agreement has been lost. (While I can imagine T losing the agreement easily enough, it is beyond me how L lost it.) If there is a dispute between L and T which has not yet gotten to the point of litigation, then neither party can force its view of the facts on the other. Reasonable parties might agree that Ls standard form of lease agreement at the time should be considered as providing the parties terms and conditions, but T has no obligation to so agree. If the matter goes to litigation because T does not agree that Ls standard-form agreement was used, then the court will try to determine the lease agreements terms and conditions. Toward that end, the court might consider the following in rendering a judgment: What each party says about what the agreement looked like and what it contained. Ls statement that at the time the relevant tenancy began, L was using a certain form of lease agreement for every rental, which agreement would be introduced into evidence. The courts assessment of the credibility of each witness. I consider it likely that if L is a credible witness and offers credible testimony, the court will order that Ls form of agreement be considered as providing the terms governing the L-T tenancy. However, there is no guarantee that such would be the outcome of the case. Final thoughts: The parties should try to agree on signing a new lease agreement (using Ls form of agreement) that begins today and continues for the remainder of the original lease term. L should improve its recordkeeping capabilities and procedures. L should have a relationship with an experienced landlord-tenant lawyer to whom questions such as this one can be addressed. I disagree with the answers stating that this fact situation describes a tenancy at will. There is a difference between (a) a tenancy for which there was no written agreement (tenancy at will) and (b) a tenancy for which the written agreement has been lost.