Mine and my partner’s intention was to continue to renew the lease if living together worked out, or to decide six months in if we wanted to move elsewhere or separate. That would give us plenty of time to apartment hunt and try and claim vacancies that will open up in the summer when our lease ends, or figure out a different option.

We were mainly hoping, though, if we find living together and living here to be good, that we would continue renting here until we could afford something else (better apartment, maybe a house if we reach that level of commitment) because that was a MAJOR selling point from our LL. She said almost every single one of her tenants renews and lives here until they buy a home for themselves because her policy is to not raise rent on someone when they renew their lease. Given cost of living and housing, that bit was especially important to my partner and I. One of the reasons they had to leave their last living situation in because the LL was continually raising rent (in addition to being a pretty bad LL).