Can I Break My Lease Early?

What am I responsible for if I break my lease?

Situations arise where a tent must leave or break their lease before it expires.  So can a tenant break a lease early? What is a tenant responsible for when they break a lease? These are all very important questions and how you handle breaking a lease can determine how much money you may lose or be responsible for.

First review your lease to see what it says regarding vacating your rental premise early. There is usually a section that specifically references this and may be named something like “Tenants Default”.

Generally speaking, a tenant is responsible for any loss a landlord my have due to that tenant breaking their lease. This is why it is best to let your landlord know as soon as possible that you will be vacating the premises. In most states a landlord has an affirmative duty to mitigate any loss. This means that they must try to find a new tenant. They are allowed to charge you for any costs associated with this.

The best thing to try and do is find another tenant, acceptable to your landlord, yourself, thereby allowing for the return of your security deposit and no additional financial loss. You can post an ad yourself and find someone that you think would be acceptable to your landlord. 

You could also try do this by sub-leasing your rental property which means that you are still responsible for the lease but you have a tenant paying you rent which you then pay the landlord. You must read your lease to see if this is allowed because in many instances it requires the approval of the landlord which may not be easy. Additionally, under this situation if anything goes wrong with your tenant you are still responsible to pay the rent and if the tenant causes any damage or other lease violations you are ultimately responsible.

You want to write your landlord a letter (Early Lease Termination Letter) explaining that you must break your lease and leave soon, and send it by certified mail return receipt. Be as nice as possible and give your landlord as much time as possible before you leave. The better the excuse you have the more likely he may let you go.  You can ask that he release you from any further liability and or cost/fees and that he return your security deposit. While this may be unlikely it can’t hurt to ask. Send this letter by certified mail return receipt so there is a time-line of when you informed your landlord.

This letter will also put your landlord on notice that you will be leaving and start his obligation to try and find another tenant and you have created a paper trail in case it is needed later.

One other way to attempt to get out of a lease, that is not always recommended, is to see if the landlord is in violation of any of his obligations. This could be anything from creating an unsafe or unsecured apartment or building or not repairing major issues wrong with the rental premises such as no heat or hot water. Some jurisdictions allow you to break a lease if the conditions warrant it. The threshold is pretty high for this and the landlord generally has a right to try and fix it before you can resort to this.