What legal rights do I have over the fact that the management never took the intiative to make sure I signed my lease for this upcoming year? I have to give notice but I am not sure what to do. Without a lease what can they do, I will pay them their obnoxious month to month rate but I don't want to be evicted for their mis-management.

I would suggest delivering a note AND calling tomorow. Let them know about your life changes and state you thought this would be OK since you currently do not have a lease. I would suggest paying for all of October and let them know it will be vacant and move in ready well before a new tenant moves in Nov 1st.

Best of Luck! Hopefully you have a nice manager that will understand and work with you. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best!

ps would the moving matter even if you did sign a year lease?

You are the one who didn't sign the lease. They haven't done any mismanagement.

you were busy and weren't sure where your life was headed, which meant simply signing the lease wasn't a simple cut-and-dried situation, and the thought of finding out what your options were was simply too much, and you put it off, and now it's the 17th. (when did they give you the new lease to sign? Not on the 1st, I'm sure).

OK, fine, we get busy, and you don't need to be scolded. But it is a bit much for you to blame THEM for mis-management. If you end up being penalized for something during this, remember that YOU were the one in control; don't blame them bcs you didn't set aside time to run your own life. YOU backed yourself into this situation; there are ways out, and you'll find one, I'm sure. But remember who it is that didn't "manage" time, taking intiative, and meeting obligations well.

And as someone who gets phenomenally busy at work and often puts her own life on hold, may I encourage you to use this unsettled feeling in the pit of your stomach right now to remind you that you MUST set aside time for your own life? That no job deserves to eat up your time to the extent that you can't pay your bills, sign your lease, and go to the doctor? If this sort of thing happens often, then try to organize your life (and your mental priorities) so that no busy period will trash your life to this extent? The social part of life, you can put off. The business part of your life, you shouldn't.

Believe me, your mortgage holder, and the property-tax office won't care that you're busy. Neither will a horrible disease (I know of someone struggling w/ cancer far too late, bcs she never got around to talking w/ a doctor).

Good luck--I hope the month-to-month situation works out for you; esp. only for a month, right? and does "their obnoxious month to month rate" mean that their lease, or they, have some policy of switching you over to month-to-month? Even if it's more expensive, it's where you should go right now, if at all possible.

The earliest they could make you leave would be the end of October, if they notify you before October 1st. If you are planning on moving out in October, notify them before October 1st, pay the October rent in full and leave.

If I did what you've done, I would currently be on a month to month lease, and legally obligated per the terms of the last lease I signed here to pay "their obnoxious month to month rate" until 30 days after I gave notice that I was moving out.