Breaking a lease

By fritzy

Hi, I moved out of my apartment several months ago, after leaving college. I at the time sublet the apartment I was renting for what I thought was the remainder of my lease. However, the subletter decided he didn’t want to stay any longer than 3 months.

I now have another 2 months on my lease and am wondering what my rights are. I have paid the last 2 months of rent on time and am curious if I have to continue to pay even though I moved back home which is out of state.

Edited on: Thursday, November 29th, 2012 6:05 pm

2 Responses to “Breaking a lease”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Richard

July 7th, 2010 5:27 pm

You can be responsible for the full lease term regardless of what your subletter does. However, if you had subleased the unit, you could use the contract you made with him/ her to hold them responsible for the final 2 months. If you had a verbal agreement with your subletter, you’re stuck.

As far as your renters rights are concerned… not too much to say other than the fact that you are required to fulfill your contractual obligation to the landlord. There are really only a couple of valid ways to get out of a lease… moving out of state isn’t one of them.

My suggestion is to work with your subletter to find a new tenant to take the last two months. Explain the situation and I’m sure the person you rented to will be somewhat helpful to show the unit to other prospects. Worse case scenario, you could offer the unit for 1 or 2 hundred dollars less. This way you can find someone fast and will only be responsible for $100 to $200 of rent– much better than the full amount.

You can also work directly with the original landlord to explain your situation to see if he/she is willing to work with you on breaking the lease. If you go this option, you will want to put it in writing. If the landlord verbally releases you from the contract, it will hold no weight and could come back to haunt you. (meaning that your landlord could send the owed money off to collections, etc which will hurt your credit)


tambol

November 29th, 2012 3:37 pm

Now you have the option to ask you subletter to stay beyond 3 months, i.e., till your original contract done with landlord for 5 months. If not ask the subletter to search for someone that can stay to this apartment for the 2 remaining months, If you have made the contract with your subletter that he will stay till 5 months, then you have upper hand. or ask you can try with landlord to come to some terms where by small fine you can move on and he can give the apartment to some other tenant. Thanks


Breaking a Lease

By Robin L Adams

Because of permanent financial emergency, I needed to move out of my apt 2 months prior to the end of my lease. I gave two months security ($2400) which I assumed I would lose and that is fine. My previous landlords are charging me the following: Breach of contract $2400, Carpet cleaning $50, Advertising $447 and Loss of rent (2 mos) $1400. Total charges $4297.00. I believe they can only charge me for EXTREME damages (which there were none) and not for items which they would have to do if I finished out my lease (2 mos). So that would include the advertising and carpet cleaning. What about the breach of contract? Can they charge me for this?

Thank you Robin

Edited on: Saturday, March 19th, 2011 5:50 am

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