State Laws
Your lease is up but you don't want to move

Even if you don't want to move, if your landlord insists upon it you will probably have to. A lease is a contract, and both sides are bound by it. If you agreed to a one-year lease, neither party is required to renew it when the year runs out.

But if the landlord refuses to renew because he doesn't like your race (or the race of your visitors, etc.) or to punish you for your exercise of some legal rights, any attempt to evict you at the end of the year might be illegal. See "Retaliatory eviction".

If you live in a community that has a rent control law, the landlord might have to show "good cause" to evict you - even after a fixed-term lease expires. "Good cause" is usually non-payment of rent, wrecking the place, and the like - but expiration of a lease is not "good cause."

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