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I teach people on how to stop renting and own their own home. At our seminars each month I am asked a commen question,
"How do you break a lease?"
There are actually several answers to this question. To start, you should carefully review the lease document to understand the entire term of lease and any clause for termination. This will help see if there are acceptable terms to agree upon and simplify the matter. If not, here are some options to those who really need to break their lease for legitimate or personal reasons. Please understand that due to the potential exposure to lawsuits, judgments and other litigation, some of these options should only be used in dire circumstances. I also recommend consulting with a local attorney before taking any further action.
Q: How do you break a lease which has just been signed within the last few months?
A: See if there is a reletting fee (typically 85% of one months rent) and offer to pay this fee and forfeit your deposit and state you will leave the place very clean and ready to rent. Always ask for a final walk-through and have the landlord agree in writing to the terms of the termination in writing.
Q: How do you break a lease when the landlord wants to be paid in full for the entire term?
A: This is tricky and the landlord holds all the cards if they have a executed lease. A signed lease will prevail in court if the landlord sues you and 90% of all landlords will take you to court to receive the judgment against you. They will usually win even if you do show up to plead your case if you do not take action ahead of time. This is a money-generating racket to landlords and apartment companies. You must present a case in court and that requires advance preparation. If done correctly, you will probably not ever get to court for the landlord usually will not initiate a case they can not slam-dunk win. Attorneys inform me that you can break a legitimate lease for several reasons such as safety concerns, failure to repair major items, or in some cases, job relocation.
Q: How do you break a lease over personal safety concerns?
A: This is a vague area to enforce because it is subjective in its interpretation. What is considered a safe environment to one individual may not be considered safe to another. By example: I had a client, Tom, who lived in an apartment building which was very nice and he had no initial problems. He eventually had his girlfriend Susan move-in with him and added to the lease. (Very Important) After about two months, she complained about the significant amount of men which loitered around the parking lot and near the laundry room on the weekends. What did not bother Tom was a cause for alarm for her. Tom put a letter in writing about this to the management which typically does nothing other than to say they will investigate. After 30 days, Tom gave the management company another letter stating he was giving notice to terminate for they had failed to correct the problem. The management said they would sue, which they did. Tom showed up in court with a copy of the letter and statement by his girlfriend along with a police report of incidences at the apartments in the last 24 months. Tom prevailed in court for the Judge stated that if Susan was in fear of her safety, she was not required to stay at the apartment complex. I have seen the “fear of personal safety" cause used regarding personal property, children, spouses, and other relatives and friends. I have seen interpretation be expanded to parking lot safety, lack of security on-site, police calls to area, inadequate lighting issues, new undesirable tenant in general facinity issues, loitering, distance from laundry mat or mail center, visitors/guests of other tenants, proximity to/from undesirable new businesses such as liquor store or nightclub, new construction site proximity, etc… The main thing to consider here is the interpretation of what you feel is a legitimate safety concern to yourself, a family member, or personal property. Being this is a subjective area of concern, the apartment manager or landlord cannot guarantee your safety and security so they will not do so for the liability issue. Regardless of what they do, you may still feel at risk and therefore have the right to insure your own personal safety by terminating the lease agreement. If you give them written notice (certified mail), and follow the procedure for their “right of cure" and then send them notice again (certified mail), then you have a strong case to terminate the lease and prevent further actions to be administered. Chances are they will not purse legal action for they know you have done the homework to prevail in court should they attempt to bring suit.
Q. How do you break a lease over neglected repairs or lack of maintenance?
A. This can also be subjective for the repairs would normally need to be related to either safety or “Quality of Life." An example of safety repairs could be the security gate is inoperable or your entry door does not close properly and lock, the exterior lights are broken of inadequate, the parking lot is not well-lit, the alarm does not work, the pool gate does not have locking mechanism and you have small children. Examples of “Quality of Life" maintenance may be the water does not work properly, AC/Heat does not work correctly, insect infestation, water/sewer does not drain properly, mice/rodent issues, odor issues, toxic fumes, or appliances do not function properly. Again, any of these issues would need to be clearly defined in a letter to the landlord and time of cure given with an immediate follow-up letter of your intention to terminate the lease. This is riskier to employ since the landlord may fix the problem as agreed and you have lost your right to terminate for that particular cause. Remember, if you notify the landlord of an issue which they resolve then you no longer have the right to terminate the lease for that cause.
Q. How do you break a lease for “Quality of Life" and “Peace and Enjoyment" issues?
A. First, you need to understand this is also a subjective area. What is considered a right for peace and enjoyment depends on the tenant. If you were a young single man who stayed up late, playing music and partying with friends in your apartment till 2am, you might not mind the guy who played loud rock music across the hall. In fact, you might invite him over to join your party. However if the person living downstairs is a middle-aged accountant with wife and two small children, he might not like the noise and have a right to ask that it be monitored and eliminated at unreasonable hours such as after 8pm. Again this is subjective so the ability for an apartment manager of landlord to enforce such control is limited and this stacks in your favor if you wish to terminate for this reason. I have found that landlords have very little control over their neighbors so this is a fairly easy fight to win if you have an obnoxious neighbor already.
Q. How do you break a lease for other reasons?
A. I am also asked about miscellaneous reasons to break a lease such as dog barking, noisy cars, laundry mat does not work, pool too crowded, sex offender moved into area, etc….
The fact is that most of the reasons to break a lease can be usually be categorized in one of the aforementioned questions and pursued in the same manner. The most important thing to remember is to give proper and adequate notice to the landlord and provide them time to cure (fix) the problem. After such time, they must be notified of your intentions to vacate. Ask them to meet you to review the facilities and inspect the property.
Other Do’s and Don’ts:
Put everything in writing and send via certified mail. Do not hand-deliver, even if you live next door to the management office. Keep all paperwork and letters in a safe place for up to 3 years.
Keep all correspondence and communication professional and unemotional. Do not use foul language or make threats. You must appear reasonable and sane. Pretend the letter will be read aloud in front of your grandmother. The reason for this is that if the letter makes it to court, it should reflect that you are a reasonable, mature person making a reasonable request.
Get police reports. Almost every police department can provide a printout of the 911 calls and visits to a neighborhood or apartment community. This is an invaluable document to present to the landlord or court. Get a copy of the police record if you are vandalized or you are aware of vandalism in the immediate vicinity.
Take photos. Take photos of the place before you move in. Take photos of neglected maintenance, broken items, anything which helps prove your case. Take exit photos of the premises to regain your deposit and protect your rights to reclaim the deposit.
Clean the refrigerator and sweep the garage. I have heard of excessive charges for $150 against renter’s deposits to do either of these things. Take photos.
Forward your mail immediately so you can get all correspondence from the landlord or the court, should they proceed with a legal claim. Give your new residence info to the landlord if they need to contact you. Most judgments against tenants are default judgments, meaning the tenant did not even show up to court. Why did they not show up? Because the landlord only lists the last known residence which is where you vacated. The court document sent to that residence never reaches you and they just show up at court to collect a judgment, because you were not even notified.
Never do the following:
Move out in the middle of the night without notice.
Move out without notice
Make threats to anyone.
Do anything without putting it in writing and sending it certified mail.
Take anything which does not belong to you.
Damage anything intentionally.
Leave the premises as anything other than how you moved in.
Vacate without attempting to schedule an inspection of the property.
Vacate without taking plenty of photos of the property as you left it.
Vacate without forwarding your mail and leaving your new address with the landlord.
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