How Does The Typical Apartment Lease Work – If I Decide I Want To Move Out Mid-year?
If I sign a 1-year lease, but after a few months I hate the apartment, and so I decide to give them 30 days notice and move out, what typically happens? Am I responsible for the remaining months of rent? Or do I just loose my security deposit?
thanks much
Tags: Apartment, Decide, Does, Lease, Midyear, Move, Typical, Want, Work
You could lose your deposit and owe rent for the rest of the lease. It depends on the lease, every one is different. It is never cheap to break a lease and it is never a good idea to do it unless you have no other option. Besides the monetary penalties it will make it near to impossible to ever rent another place.
If you think that you may not want to stay then you need to find a place that will do a month to month or a 6 month lease.
Read your lease. Is there an early termination clause? Is there an early termination fee or penalty listed in the lease? Re-letting fees … liquidated damages?
If your lease is silent on the matter, it is because you are expected to fulfill your lease obligations.
Generally, you would be liable for the rent until either a replacement tenant is found or the lease expires. The landlord can also hold you liable for any costs he incurs due to your breach, such as advertising costs, agent fees, court costs, attorney fees, property damages, etc.
Any of the above mentioned costs can be deducted from your security deposit and you will owe whatever the balance is.
The landlord can sue you for the above mentioned costs, report it to the credit bureaus and ruin your rental history..
A lease is a legally binding contract. You are liable for whatever you agreed to. Could be they might be happy with your deposit and could be there are all sorts of reletting charges or they can accelerate the lease and you are liable for all of it. Tain’t that simple dearie. You are responsible for your actions. . .you might have to learn to suck it up and like it until your lease is up. One thing for sure, you will be paying. Next time look things over a bit before you sign.
I know were I work we give you two lease break options. The first is pay a settlement fee at our property the settlement fee is equivalent to two months rent. The second option is stay rent responsible until we re-rent the apartment or your lease expires whichever happens first. I would go to your leasing office and ask what your options are. If you don’t break your lease properly it will effect your credit and being able to rent in the future.
YOU DEFINITELY WILL LOOSE YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT READ YOUR
LEASE. MOST LEASES WILL STATE YOU CAN BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
REMAINING PAYMENTS BECAUSE YOU SIGNED THE RENTAL CONTRACT
WHICH IS A LEGAL DOCUMENT.
A LANDLORD
You lose your security deposit
You may be sued
You may be held accountable for 3 mos rent
Read the lease you are signing for the clause that addresses early termination.
Read your lease carefully. Your landlord can make any term or condition he or she wants – in other words every lease is different. They could be generous or they could be absolutely rock solid. You just have to read the fine print.