Need to Break a Lease? Here’s What You Should Know.
February 25, 2011 | Apartment Lifestyle, Everyday Living
Renters decide to break a lease for a number of valid reasons. You may have to relocate for a job, take on a roommate in these tough economic times, or move due to a marital split. Depending on your reasons, your landlord may be sympathetic and not penalize you. At worst, however, breaking a rental contract could have serious consequences.
You could be required to pay the rent for the remaining months on your lease; your landlord could take legal action against you; or your credit report could be impacted. To protect yourself, it’s important to learn how to break an apartment lease so it has the fewest negative consequences for you and your landlord.
How to Break an Apartment Lease:
- Read your rental agreement: See if it states anything about how to break a lease or what the penalties are. Look for words like “early release,” “sublet” and “re-let.” It may indicate that you have to give notice of your intention to vacate the apartment one or two months in advance or that you have to find your replacement renter.
- Talk to your landlord: To stay on good terms, give your landlord as much notice as possible. If you need to break your lease immediately and cannot give the standard amount of notice specified in your lease, then offer to find someone to sublet from you or a new tenant. Keep in mind that if you are legally allowed to sublet, and you choose to do so, you’re still legally responsible for the rent and anything that goes wrong through the length of your rental contract. If you find a new renter, however, ask the landlord to write up a new lease so yours can be terminated.
- Find a new tenant: In many states, both you and your landlord are required to try to find a new tenant to replace you if you move out early. In legal terms, this is known as mitigating the damages from breaking your lease; in other words, lessening the rent amount still owed for the remaining months. For the landlord, this often means re-listing your unit and showing the property to interested renters. If your landlord isn’t able to find a new renter quickly, you may be required to pay for the days the unit remains vacant. If the landlord has to re-rent the unit at a lower rent, you might have to pay the difference.
Special Circumstances
In many states, it’s possible to break your lease without penalty under specific special circumstances. Common permissible reasons for breaking a lease include:
- Your apartment is unlivable. You will most likely need proof of your issues, as well as your attempts to resolve them, and the actions, or lack thereof, the landlord took with regard to this matter.
- You receive a military order to move to another area or get called in to active duty.
- You get injured or become seriously ill.
To learn more about local laws and how to break a lease in your state, contact a local tenants’ rights organization, your local legal-aid office or a lawyer.
