My SO might be offered a job transfer in the next few weeks in another state and we just signed a lease here in Southern CA for another year at our apartment complex.
Besides looking through the lease, which says we are fully liable to pay the rent until the lease is up or someone else rents the apartment, are there stipulations to this kind of thing? I’m sure people get job transfers all the time. Is there a legal way around this?
I’m no lawyer, but I work in the commercial real estate industry…
First off, any laws that would address this sort of thing would be municipal, county or state ordinances. This is a rather bewildering, ad-laden website that is nonetheless pretty helpful in pointing you to state or local ordinances regarding renting.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I kind of doubt you’ll find anything that addresses your situation, at least anything that addresses it in your favor. I’m not saying it is impossible or that you shouldn’t try searching for a little while, but if I had to bet my money I’d say you’re out of luck from a legal standpoint. If there ARE any local or state ordinances that cover this sort of thing, however, they will in all likelihood supercede anything in the lease, though.
Now, let’s say there are no legal remedies… try bargaining with your landlord. It’s possible that you’re actually leasing from a national management company, and if they’ve got a complex in the city you’re moving to they’d probably love to have you simply transfer to that. Barring that, you can either throw yourself on the mercy of the landlord, or continue making payments until it’s leased to someone else. If you’re in a pretty tight rental market, that probably won’t take very long.
Or, I suppose you could file for bankruptcy… that’s how Git-N-Go (a local convenience store chain) is planning on getting out of some 5 and 10 years leases here in Tulsa… including some that were signed less than a year ago.
Go talk to your apartment manager. Some leases include relocation clauses that stipulate what happens if you’re transferred so that you’re not stuck with the penalty. There also may be a policy of the rental company that’s not written into the lease. But there may not be.
One place I lived required that I bring in notification on company letterhead, and they then called the company to verify that I was being relocated. Another one just accepted me telling them. Both required 30 days notice, but I had no penalty to pay.
That is some lease that doesn’t have any type of clause (transfrer clauses are common) to get you out of the lease. Your paying the rent is kinda predicated on you having a job and all. I expect they asked you if you had a job when you rented.
I’d take that lease to an attorney (one who specializes in that sort of thing - i.e. real estate/whatever) and see if it is legal. I don’t think I would willingly mail a rent check back to the old apartment, maybe if they were big enough to make me.
You also might, I think this has been suggested, negotiate a deal.
IANYL blah blah blah
There are already some good options on here: talking/negotiating with leasing manager, transferring lease with you as you move, transfer documents on company letterhead…
At common law, which the state of CA may or may not follow (not my speciality), if you could find someone to take your lease over for you, there would be no penalty. If CA is a renter-friendly state like, I believe (as friendly as), IL, then you can leave and your landlord must take reasonable efforts to fill that space. The landlord can charge costs to you that were needed in filling the space, such as: ad space in paper, making the apt move-in ready, lost rents due to vacancy, etc.
Also, check your lease, there should be some sort of Termination for Convenience clause (or termination penalty as it was more commonly known). This clause is usually two month’s rent, and i think you can get your SO’s company to pay for it as I believe it’s a deductible expense (then again, I hate tax law, so best to check w/a lawyer or accountant). If true, which I believe it is, then your SO should be able to claim the deduction if your company doesn’t pick it up.
Yea, definitely check your lease. Mine has a clause where you can break the lease with a certain amount of notice and pay some fees to do it.
I’m pretty sure from reading the OP that he already read the lease, and it said “you’re responsible for the full amount for the full term of the lease until it gets leased to someone else.” This is somewhat unusual, typically there’s a “breaking your lease early clause” that lets you get out of the lease after paying some kind of penalty (I’ve seen two month’s rent, typically).
There is also the possibility of common law remedies, of course, but I would imagine that the legal fees you’d rack up by the time it’s done would be well over 12 months of rent. The only efficient legal situation I can think of would be an explicit law or ordinance that you could show to your landlord and hopefully avoid any legal fees.
To the OP: if you think it might be a while before the unit gets leased, see if maybe the landlord will just take a couple of months rent instead… of course, if the landlord thinks it will take a while to lease out too, he’ll probably be less inclined to do so… usually “early-out” clauses are put in there because they know it will only take a week or two to lease the unit, and this way they can get a few extra months of rent without technically doing so (rather than “rent” it’s a “fee.”). However, even if there is a clause, you should still have the option to just pay rent until it’s leased… I think that, legally speaking, no landlord can accept rent for the same unit at the same time from two different entities unless they both agree to split the interest in the apartment unit… I would imagine that would be against the whole concept of leasehold interest.
I’m a commercial real estate agent and don’t do apt. leases, but the situation is similar to scenarios where commercial tenants have to move for one reason or another. They contact me to sub-let the space for them and pay me a commission for doing so.
You might also contact the largest residential real estate brokerages in your area and and tell them you have a nice apartment for lease at a discount rate for clients that might need interium housing. Our residential division is always looking for short term “executive rentals” for clients moving out of one house and into another where the “move to” house is not ready yet and the buyers have to vacate the one they sold. Making up a little brochure of your place with photos and details is very helpful in these situations. There is little to no money for a residential agent in short term apt leases so they will be doing this as a favor for their clients. Making their job easier re describing the unit is a big help.
If it’s a hot market you should be able to sub-let your space without difficulty. If it’s not so hot lower the price to make it attractive. This is predicated on the assumption that your lease allows you to sub-let.
If nothing else works you can tell the landlord that they can release you from the lease without prejudice in exchange for a month or two penalty or chase you for payment to another state. Most landlords are realists and will work out a buy out deal in these cases but there are no guarantees.
Yes, I’ve looked over the lease. Basically it says you are responsible until someone moves in. I talked with the people at the leasing office and the advice they gave was, “if you break the lease, try to do it in the summer”. That’s when most people move and rent and here in So Cal it shouldn’t take too long.
Thanks everyone for your posts.
I have a related question about this. I was in this exact situation in California a couple years ago, and my lease basically said that I could break the lease and the landlord would attempt to find a new renter, but that I would be liable for the rent in the meantime. Fair enough, it seems, until you consider that it’s in the landlord’s best interests to be extra choosy about who they’ll rent to all of a sudden. What if you even go to the effort of finding willing and able renters yourself and the landlord doesn’t like them?
On a positive note, dreamer, they found new renters within about a month of me moving.
I’m glad it worked out for you galt as I hope it does for us. Who knows, maybe the apt. will rent out right away. If not I cannot see us sending $1400 to them after we have already moved out and are paying rent somewhere else. Not because we wouldn’t want to pay our debts, but because we couldn’t possibly come up with that much money. Hopefully they will accept something like $10 a month? 
I used to travel the country as an engineering contractor. Always rented apartments, but always made sure there was some type of transfer clause in the lease. The projects I was working on never outlasted a lease. Usually I would end up forfeiting the security deposit and I was gone.
If the transfer is for a much better position, the employer might also be willing to offer some assistance (at least for a short term). Last solution (not the best), move and see if the rental compnay tries to chase you across the state line (most won’t). They may send a couple of letters, but usually won’t take any legal action.
Good luck.
The landlord is legally required to take all renters who meet the reasonable standard of renting from that apartment. What is the reasonable standard? Well, if he rented to you, and the landlord has reasonable requirements or industry standard requirements (min. salary, note from employer, credit rating), and the new renters meet those criteria, he cannot deny them simply b/c he doesn’t like them; and, he sure as hell can’t deny them based on any of the suspect classifications like race, religion, or gender (am I forgetting one?) If anything, the landlord should be glad that you went and found new renters.
Stiffing the landlord is a bad idea. They will file small claims, and do bad, bad things to your credit rating. How are you supposed to get a mortgage approved when it shows that you can’t even pay rent? Of course, this is meaningless if you pay everything in cash.
I’ve been in dreamer’s situation, and I resolved the situation in exactly the same way as Lsura. I typed up a letter, and submitted it with a month’s notice.
IANAL, but in some areas of the U.S., the rental laws strongly favor the renter. In Louisiana, where I moved from, it’s “common knowledge” (read: not necessarily correct) that getting out of a lease upon job transfer or out-of-area job offer is a piece of cake. Two leases I have signed in Louisiana contained a clause that stipulated the lease could be broken in the event of a job offer or transfer more than 50 miles away.
I had, however, never rented from a large rental corporation while living in Louisiana. I was renting from private individuals who happened to own rental property. So others’ MMV.