Indicating your intent to renew your lease is an important first step in securing your unit for another term.

Renewal Offers:

If you are a current tenant, you will receive an email at least 180 days (6 months) prior to your lease end with your renewal offer. This will include what your new rent rate will be if you renew as well as any change in the terms and conditions of your lease. Our goal is to offer current tenants a discounted rate, but we always consider market conditions when determining pricing. You will have until 150 days (5 months) prior to your lease end to let us know what you'd like to do. If you choose to renew, we will send you a renewal lease for review and signature within 30 days of your response. If you choose not to renew, we will list the property for prospective new tenants (on or after 149 days prior to your lease end). You will receive 24 hours' notice prior to tours at the property, and someone from Baker Street will always accompany prospects. If someone asks to enter without a Baker Street representative you are not required to let them enter.

For new tenants inquiring about the property prior to the date the current tenants are required to indicate their intent to renew, we offer a wait list system to organize the priority of the property. Check out our Wait List page for more details regarding this process.

Tenants on the Renewal Lease:

While you decide if you would like to renew, please be sure to check with the other group members you are living with to see what their plans are too. Often, some tenants would like to stay and others do not. In situations like this, it is important to communicate with us which group members are staying. Telling Baker Street about these plans from the start will save a lot of time and energy. If we know ahead of time, we will not send a renewal lease to all the group members and cause confusion. Instead, there are two options:

1. If you do not have your future group members selected and feel comfortable with signing a renewal lease before those future group members are added, we can get started on the renewal lease as soon as possible with the intent to add new group members later. This will help secure the property. Please note that if you do not add another group member later on and you've signed the renewal lease, you are still responsible for paying your full rent. Check out our Adding Future Tenants To A Lease section for more details.
2. If you do have your future group members selected, that is great! We will then email those group members applications to get started on adding them to the renewal lease. Check out our Filling Out An Application section for more details.

To sign your renewal lease is really no different than it was to sign your original lease. Good news, everything is done online! Check out our Signing A Lease section regarding this process.

Depending our your group’s situation, this step can vary. Typically, your group will fall into one of these three categories, which will help clarify this next step:

No Change to Group Members:

If all of the group members are renewing the lease, this is the simplest and easiest step, because you will not have to do anything. You and your group members will continue to make rent payments the same way throughout the renewal lease term. Your security deposit will be automatically transferred to the renewal lease.

Most Group Members are Renewing:

This step is for groups where 50% or more group members are renewing the lease.

• Unlike signing a new lease, a first month’s rent payment will not be due at lease signing. Renewing group members and future group members will continue to make rent payments the same way throughout the renewal lease term.
• We will not schedule a maintenance and cleaning walk-through at the end of the original lease term. We will assume the non-renewing group members will prepare the property for the future group members joining the renewal lease.
• The security deposit will be automatically transferred to the renewal lease term for the tenants who are renewing. Those on the current lease who are not renewing will receive their security deposit back within 30 days of the end of the original lease once they fill out the security deposit form. The future members joining the lease will need to pay their portion of the security deposit directly to the Baker Street Resident Center ledger.

Most Group Members are Not Renewing:

This step is for groups where less than 50% of group members are renewing the lease.

• Like signing a new lease, a first month’s rent payment will be due at lease signing. Renewing group members and future group members will make rent payments on a new lease ledger then and throughout the renewal lease term.
• We will schedule a maintenance and cleaning walk-through at the end of the original lease term. We will coordinate a time with the renewing group members to do this walk-through.
• The security deposit will be a new security deposit as if it were a new lease. Renewing group members can choose to place new portions of their deposits or automatically transfer their current portions of their deposits to the renewal lease term. Non-renewing group members can receive their portions of the security deposit as normal.

Please remember there are always exceptions, so if you have any questions regarding the renewal process or preferences about these steps, be sure to contact us at leasing@221b.rentals.

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If a tenant renewal lease start date is not the first of the month, then the rent of for the month will be calculated at a prorated rent charge (per the original rent rate and the renewal rent rate). This calculated prorated rent charge will clearly be outlined in the first month's rent section of your lease agreement.

Unfortunately, our system does not allow us to update the ongoing charge ahead of time, so instead, we add the prorated difference for the month that the renewal start to the ledger as a separate charge.