Question: We are currently renting a rowhouse in the District of Columbia. We signed a 12-month lease this past March with a property management company. Approximately three months into our lease, the owner of the property fired that manager. We then received a letter from the manager stating that he surrendered our security deposit to the owner and that we were now to pay rent directly to the owner. We have not signed any agreement since that time with the owner directly.

Are we still under lease? Can we legally vacate now before the end of the lease term? Could the owner ask us to leave?

Answer: Your letter gave me a good laugh, until I realized that you were seriously looking for answers. Wouldn't it be easy for a tenant who signs a one-year lease to claim "we no longer have a contract because the owner fired the property manager"?

But that's not the way it works.

The owner of your property is your landlord. The property manager is nothing more than the agent of the owner. In fact, from what I have seen, most leases in multi-unit buildings are signed by the property manager -- on behalf of the landlord.

Your lease has to be in writing. Once it is signed by both tenant and owner (or agent for the owner), it becomes a valid and binding legal document. Violations of the lease -- by either landlord or tenant -- are enforceable in a Court of Law, usually called the "Landlord-Tenant Court."

If, for example, you do not pay your rent, your landlord will be able to evict you, although this has to be done through a court order. Your landlord cannot exercise what is referred to as "self-help" -- throwing your belongings out on the street and changing the locks.

The law of landlord-tenant is regulated on a state-to-state basis. Different states have different laws; some are landlord-oriented while others (such as in the District of Columbia) favor tenants. But regardless of what state you are in, you -- as a tenant -- signed a lease and must adhere to all of its terms.

Your original lease was signed by the Property Manager, but in its capacity as an agent for the owner. Now that the property manager is no longer in the picture, your lease has been taken over by the owner -- who has always been your landlord.

You signed a one-year lease. Unless you are in default under the terms of that legal document, you have to stay in the property -- and pay rent -- for the full term of the lease. And your landlord cannot legally ask you to leave.

In fact, should the landlord decide to sell the property in which you reside, any new owner will also be legally bound to honor all of the terms of the lease.

You indicate that you may be interested in leaving, so that you can buy another property. Although you are stuck with the one year term, it certainly does not hurt to ask your landlord under what conditions he may be willing to allow you to get out from under the lease.

I am often amazed at the reluctance of both landlords and tenants to talk to one another. We live in a society that wants to litigate, when often communication will resolve the dispute. Indeed, many Courts throughout this nation have instituted mandatory mediation as a prerequisite to going to a trial on the merits of any litigation. This is known as ADR -- "alternate dispute resolution" -- and mediators tell me that their success rate for settling cases is well over 50 percent.

Why does one have to file suit before trying to resolve a dispute on an amicable basis? The only winners are usually the attorneys who are retained to file suit. Communication, in my opinion, resolves most disputes -- no matter how contentious they may be.

You also asked about your security deposit. The property manager has advised you that it has been turned over to the owner of the property. I recommend that you contact your landlord as soon as possible to confirm that in fact he has those funds. You do not want to wait until you leave the property to first learn that the security deposit was never transferred.

You signed a one-year lease and you and your landlord are bound by that legal document.

Published: August 23, 2004

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Author of the weekly Housing Counsel column with The Washington Post for nearly 30 years, Benny Kass is the senior partner with the Washington, DC law firm of Kass, Mitek & Kass, PLLC and a specialist in such real estate legal areas as commercial and residential financing, closings, foreclosures and workouts. Mr. Kass is a Charter Member of the College of Community Association Attorneys, and has written extensively about community association issues. In addition, he is a life member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. In this capacity, he has been involved in the development of almost all of the Commission’s real estate laws, including the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act which has been adopted in many states.