Is a 30 day notice required after a lease is expired?

My husband began renting a mobile home in August of 2010. He signed a year lease. Therefore, the least expired in August 2011. We never signed another lease, leading me to believe we were living there on a month-to-month basis.

We recently decided to buy a home. We’re going through the motions, and decided to stay with my parents and save some money during the 30 days it takes to close on the house. We told our landlords yesterday that, while it wasn’t for sure yet, we may be moving out at the end of the month. The landlord’s wife said that was fine and to just let them know when it was official.

I came home from work today to see the “for rent” sign was already up. My husband figured they were doing it as a precaution so they could have someone else lined up if we do move out. That’s fine with me, I get that. Well, my husband went to talk to the landlord about it.

We should be getting $250 back from our original deposit and perhaps a $250 pet deposit back. When we got our cat, he told us there was a chance it would be non-refundable, so I’m sure he’ll find some imaginary damage created by the cat in order to get out of giving us our deposit. Well, that’s fine, because we were warned. Now he is making complaints about my husband.

Before we moved in, the prior resident punched a hole in the very thin wall near the door. The landlord had someone patch it with another square piece of wall held up with 4 pieces of trimming. VERY cheaply done and definitely nothing permanent. Well, two years later, two of the four pieces of trim have fallen off. The landlord seems to think this is our responsibility. In order to not cause trouble, my husband said he’d tack the pieces back up. My husband has done A LOT of free labor for our landlords – numerous repairs on our mobile home and a few other properties owned by our landlords. We keep up with our house and everything is in the same (actually better) condition as it was when we moved in.

Then, the landlord decides to tell us that, technically, we need to give them 30 days notice before moving out. Uh, the lease is expired. He’s telling my husband the lease isn’t void until we move out. I’ve never heard of this before. It was a one-year lease. My guess is that he’s trying to cheat us out of as much money as he can before we leave. We’re willing to take this to court if need be, but I wanted to find out if anything he’s saying will hold up in front of a judge.

Any thoughts?