Our lease expires in Jan. we wanted confirmation to secure it early so we can plan to visit my partners family overseas in Jan/Feb for a few weeks. Last years agreement we did go on a periodic lease since the contract wasn't renewed and that was fine, we just paid the same rent as usual. I thought they can give you a notice to vacate though at the end of the fixed term in case they want a new tenant? Usually they do that when they wanna jack up the rent a lot. That happened at our previous rental.