I have been working at a company for over a year so thinking that I had a stable future. Unfortunately, I found out a couple of weeks ago that I am being laid off. After a couple of weeks I have made the decision that I am moving to Utah from Pennsylvania. It is the best decision that I have. So I called up my landlord and let her know I was leaving. She was quite irrate and made reference that she would try to make to pay the rent until they could find another renter. I would not think that they could do that I understand that they might be able to take my deposite and last months rent, but I hope not. I do not want to leave in bad terms with these people but I simply have no money.
The question is does anybody have any experience with these matters or cna anybody point me in the right direction to find the answers I need? I thank you for all help you can give in advance.
IANAL and IDLITS(I Don’t Live In The States) but here you’d pay the next months rent and that’s it. Rent deposit would be yours, too. We have one months notice in cancelling if it’s done by the tenant. Three months when done by the landlord if the contract has lasted under one year and 6 months if it has lasted over a year.
You didn’t mention what state you lived in… but in CA you are on the hook for the entire amount should you cancel your lease without due cause (ie it’s a health hazard or you were a victim of fraud etc.)
Usually landlords don’t want to litigate (they don’t like court any more than you do and it costs them money, time and energy) and if they can rent it out they will usually let you off the hook… but you are still legally responsible for the balance on the lease… at least AFAIK.
Dolphin Boy is right. A lease is a legally binding contract – if you promised to be there paying rent for a full year, and you leave early, that’s a breach of contract and they can sue you for damages. There are limits on what they can recover, which vary depending on the state and on local rent control laws, and on how quickly they can release the space. If they can’t rent it out, you’re on the hook. The odds of them chasing you across state lines for six or eight months of rent are slim. But they could! And most leases have an attorney’s fees provision, so you’d have to pay their lawyer as well.
I’m in California. When my wife and I took a 1-year lease on an apartment recently, I made a point of checking on the consequences of breaking the lease.
Our rental contract states that, should we move out before the one year is up, we’re responsible for paying rent until the apartment is again rented, or until the end of the year, whichever comes first.
I would think that this would be spelled out clearly in your rental agreement. You’ll have a better starting point for arguing/negotiating with the landlord if you can dig up the contract that you signed. If you agreed to the conditions that they’re claiming, then you’ll have to appeal to their sense of mercy (I guess). If they’re blowing smoke, you can call them on it. Without specific knowlege of the contract, though, we’re all just guessing.
You need to read your lease agreement carefully. If I were to break my lease without 30 days notice(the 30 days notice is waived in the case of job relocation), I would have lose my deposit and have to pay a penalty equal to one months rent. A waiver of this for a work related relocation can only be granted with a statement on company letterhead mailed or faxed directly to the complex from company I work for.
Technically, if I did not give them notice, I would be responsible for the rent through the lease term. But check your lease agreement(I hope you saved the copy they gave you).
WHAT HAPPENS IF TENANT BREAKS ANY AGREEMENT IN THIS LEASE
… If the Tenant breaks this lease, Tenant may lose their security deposit. If Tenant breaks this lease, Landlord also can sue Tenant for other expenses and may go to court to have Tenant removed from the leased property. …
Here it sounds like they can only take my security deposit unless they want to sue me “other expenses” but to me that sounds like if I cause any damage. Since I will be leaving there will not be any crazy scene where they have to forcefully rip me from the property.
etgaw1: Landlords are understandably loathe to have vacant properties. If you are able to scare up a tenant on your own, your landlord misses no rent and has no expenses, time, or labor to write off. I bet she would then be more amenable to ending your relationship amiably.
As long as you make a new agreement with them you are alright. You better listen to what they want though. In Calif you can get a book TENANTS RIGHTS that is right up your alley & they might have one for your state as they do them for each state.
Here in Oklahoma it’s very common for a lease to include a clause where, if you have to move out within the time of the lease, you can break it by paying some fraction of another month’s rent. Where I currently am, I pay $415 a month rent, and if I needed to leave for some reason, I’d need to give 30 days notice, pay my rent up to that point, and then an additional 3/4 month’s rent ($312.50) If I did that, I’d get my security deposit back. Of course, I could move to another apartment within the same complex without actually breaking lease…I’d simply have to put down a new security deposit on it and then get back my security deposit on this one. Landlords also happen to be pretty accomodating if, say, you signed a year lease for a 1 bedroom and then found out you were expecting a child halfway through it.
What happens if a tenant breaks a long-term lease?
As a general rule, a tenant may not legally break a lease unless the landlord significantly violates its terms – for example, by failing to make necessary repairs, or by failing to comply with an important law concerning health or safety. A few states have laws that allow tenants to break a lease because of health problems or a job relocation that requires a permanent move.
A tenant who breaks a lease without good cause will be responsible for the remainder of the rent due under the lease term. In most states, however, a landlord has a legal duty to try to find a new tenant as soon as possible – no matter what the tenant’s reason for leaving – rather than charge the tenant for the total remaining rent due under the lease.
I was just in this situation a couple of months back. Fortunately, my landlord and I came to an agreement, I ran ads for a new tenant, and I was off the hook (I gave 30 days notice and I only had to pay the 2 weeks the apartment was vacant before the new tenant moved in).
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Are the laws in California really so draconian? Here in Ontario (Canada), landlords cannot give less than 60 days notice, and renters cannot be compelled to give more than 30 days notice (regardless of the terms on any contract). It’s different for commercial leases, naturally.
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Laws in calif are okay. The gov signed a law that if they raise your rent more than 10% they have to let you know 60 days in advance.
Anyway this thing happened to me once. So they had to find another person & put an ad in the paper. The manager was nuts & scheduled people for all hours to come see the unit. Then I found out that he wanted a girl that he was interested in to take it but she couldn’t take it for a month so he waited for her & this cost some major bucks.
Get the Tenants Handbook cause it covers everything & it would take forever to type it out.
Cerowyn, I’m not sure why you consider it “draconian” to hold people to the agreements they have made. If you are an adult, and you agree to pay a year’s worth of rent, with no provision for early moveouts, well, you’ve made your bed and should sleep in it.
If you can work out a waiver with the landlord, then great, but if not you shouldn’t be surprised or upset to find the landlord holding you to the agreement you made in the first place.