Breaking a rental lease
Hi guys,
I was hoping some of you would have some experience in what I can expect when I break my lease to move to a new job opportunity out of state. I have been living in this apartment for 3 months come December 1st and my lease agreement will have 9 months left on it. The lease is a very simple two pager and I am currently renting from an individual owner. There isn't any provision for an early exit.
From everything I've read it seems that the law is strongly on the side of the landlord in issues like these, but was wondering if I was missing something. Going to try and be as cordial as possible in figuring out a way to settle this between the land lord, but wanted to know if I had any leverage in this situation.
Thanks for the help.
find a new guy to take over the least and the LL usually will play ball
Andy,
The first question to ask is have you spoken to your landlord about this? If you're renting from an individual owner, you may be able to get him to agree to breaking the lease without invoking breach of contract. I would try that first before trying to take alternative routes. If that doesn't work, then we can talk.
I've heard of people finding a qualified person to take over the lease, with no penalty. I have also heard of the LL negotiating a price to break (very common). Be honest with your LL and give as much warning as possible. As long as you don't mess with their cashflow; LL's are generally pretty understanding.
Guys first thanks for the advice, and I agree that the best course of action would be finding someone to replace me in the lease. I feel like I have a good relationship with my landlord and made sure to alert her within a few hours after I accepted the offer (left a message haven't heard back). I'll keep you updated on how things turn out, what we're able to come up with.
Thanks,
Andy
What the lease says and what they will do to pursue you are two different things. When a LL has a deadbeat (not saying you are one) they are usually more than happy to just get the place back in horrible condition. So you should be really weighing your odds of being sued by the LL in a scenario where you vacate the premises and leave the place in good condition. The smaller the LL the better your odds.
"From everything I've read it seems that the law is strongly on the side of the landlord in issues like these, but was wondering if I was missing something"
Depends on what state you're in. But try working with the guy, he probably wont stuff you.
depends on whether it states the term and the total amount that you have to pay over the term of the lease. My current lease states the period (12 months) and how much I'm obligated to pay over the 12 months. I would say that's pretty ironclad. If you don't have a clause like that in your lease I wouldn't worry to much. Prior leases that I've had didn't have the clause, but as a courtesy I found another tenant to to sign a new lease. You don't want to assign your lease b/c the landlord can technically keep your deposit until the full term is completed.
Like everyone else says be upfront, but realize that you have options depending on the landlord's response.
I've done it before. I offered to let the landlord keep the security deposit (2 month's rent) if he let me out of the lease. I didn't have time to deal with finding a new tenant. He apparently thought he could fill the place again in less than two months, coming out ahead, so he said yes. He was under no obligation to do that however, and he could have just insisted that I pay the whole lease.
That said, if you walk out, it's a huge pain in the ass for an individual land lord to chase you down and enforce a lease. Having been an individual landlord myself, I can tell you - especially if you're moving out of state - that it's so costly and time consuming that it's 100% not worth chasing a tenant that leaves early. You just suck up the loss and try to find someone else to fill it as quickly as possible.
This - my sister has had three different people do this to her, and it's just too expensive and time consuming to track them down to sue them.
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