contract-law lease
Is typo in rental contract enforceable
<p>My lease agreement is ending in about a week and I want to move. However, my landlord is saying that I am unable to because I did not give him a 30 day notice stating my intent to leave the property. Without the notice he says that the lease is automatically renewed. After reviewing my lease it somewhat says that but there is a typo. It says that I must notify him at 'lease' 30 days prior to moving as opposed to 'at least.' Is this still enforceable? Am I stuck here for another year?</p>

<p>A typo in a contract does not ever void the contract. If the typo changes the <em>meaning</em> of the contract from what was actually intended, then it is up to a judge to interpret the contract and whether it is reasonable that a person would assume its intended meaning.</p>

<p>In your example, it is obvious that the word "least" was meant to be there and not "lease" - as the alternate word makes no sense in context - so a judge would not void the contract or release you from your 30 day obligation (which is probably even granted to the landlord by local laws <em>regardless</em> of whether it was stated in the contract). Even misspellings of people's names or addresses on a lease do not void a contract if you have already paid or taken up residence. If any of these situations were brought to court, the judge would just amend the contract to a corrected version that would then serve as the contract between the two parties, replacing the version with the typo. This is known as contract reformation.</p>
