A dear friend of mine has a job offer that she’s relocating for. She is renting an apartment and has six months left on her lease. The lease doesn’t enumerate any specific penalty for breaking a lease, but I’m sure that laws must apply to renters in this situation.
We live in Michigan. Does anyone know anything about the applicable laws? Is there a maximum amount she’s liable for? What if the landlord doesn’t make a good-faith effort to find another renter?
I understand that no one can give me real legal advice here, but some pointers would be helpful.
As someone who is planning on breaking his lease soon to purchase a house, the first thing I’d advise is for your friend to get in contact with her landlord/leasing office and ask them. They may very well be perfectly willing to cut her a deal that’s completely different then the letter-of-the-lease. For example, my lease says that if I move out before the lease is over, all future rent and a $750 fine become immediately past due(!!), but the leasing office is allowing me to pay the fine, one month’s rent, and rent for 60 days minus the amount of notice I give (i.e., if I give 30 days notice I would owe 30 days rent). An apartment complex is likely gonna be more flexible “in person” then on paper, given that the paper is probably just legal boilerplate.
That said, a lease is a contract, and she is liable for paying rent for the duration of the lease. However, most states require the landlord to “mitigate liability” by making a good-faith effort to re-rent the apartment. Michigan is not such a state. My copy of Nolo’s “Renter’s Rights” says that the duty to re-rent is “unclear or courts have not addressed the issue” in Michigan. My copy is dated October 2000, so it may be out of date. Also, there may be local ordinances that apply, so she may want to check with her city or county.
If her landlord is uncooperative, your friend’s best bet is probably gonna be to contact the local bar for a referal. They frequently have a program where they’ll hook you up with a 1/2 hour consult with a qualified lawyer for beans (often around $30, which, relative to just about any other lawyer related cost, is pennies).
They may let you sublet the apartment to a another party for the remainder of your lease. Especially if th other party is interested in leasing the location once your lease is over.
I notice landlord tenant law in Michigan is sparse in detail. This means one must from inferences from precedence and other similar laws. This means ya gotta find help from someone in your state.
In Hawaii, you cannot be charged for *more * than the total rental fees due for the length of the lease. They cannot charge you a fee for breaking the lease, even if the fee is less than the length of the total rental fees, because if you break your lease and move out, the landlord must show a good faith effort to rent out that apartment for the remainder of the lease and subtract that from the amount owed.
However, I do notice that some states allow a fee for breaking a lease, this gives more flexabilty. The landlord can elect, for instance, to upgrade, do repairs to, or take off the market the apartment and not re-rent it immediately. And also close the books on the previous tenant. The tenant is relieved of all obligations and gets back any or all monies immedately, instead of waiting for the landlord to ameliorate their damages.
It is inconceivable that breaking the rent means you have to pay all the rent immediately and pay a fine, and lose the right to occupy the apartment; since the damages cannot be more than if you had payed the rent all along.
But who knows? You know what they say about Michigan!! :rolleyes:
I can’t remember the name of this song, but it’s a fuck of a lot better than out state song. “Michigan, my Michigan” sung to the tune of “O Tanenbaum”.
Anyway, thanks a bunch for the advice, guys. I’ll tell her her best bet is to work it out with the landlord (it’s just a single house, and she’s spoken to him already about it) and she’s already offered to do some of the legwork finding a new tenant. If that fails, I guess she’s gonna have to borrow money from her folks to pay it.
Because my lease, like many others, requires that my apartment be my legal residence. The exact wording in my lease is:
The clause that requires the early move-out penalty specifically says that it’s not a cancellation fee and doesn’t wave any other liabilities in the lease (i.e., future rent).
And also trashed his credit report and score and made it much harder to find another apartment in the future. Eviction proceedings are a matter of public record that show up on your credit report. Landlords check credit reports, and don’t like renting to people who’ve been evicted.
Does this strike anyone else as insane? Hell, just “keep living there” on paper until the end of the lease if they’re not willing to find another renter. Why the hell would you be liable for this additional $750?
