Question by Kodiak: Is there a way to break an apartment lease?
My brother has an apartment with a lease until July. He just became un-employed and is drawing unemployment. He wants to know if there is any way to get released from the lease given his current situation. He is not military nor does he work for the government where there are exceptions made for breaking leases under certain circumstances.

Best answer:

Answer by steveko777
loss of income is not an acceptable excuse for breaking a lease—but as a Landlord I would rather let the tenant go and re-rent then get stuck for months of rent and have to evict someone. Talk to your lease holder about your situation—hopefully they will be logical and let you go rather then tell you that you are stuck.

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Question by steve42086: Need to break lease/ nothing in my lease concerning breaking it, any opinions?
I’ve recently signed a 1yr lease for my apt, but must now leave for personal reasons. My lease states nothing about what would happen if I must break my lease early. What should I do? Is there a loophole to break my lease without facing charges?

Best answer:

Answer by Ms. E
Hi,

Technically, you can break a lease even if the lease says you can’t. What the landlord then has to do is what is called “mitigate” damages. What this means is that the landlord has to make a reasonable effort to rent the apartment to someone else as quickly as is reasonable.

What happens then is that you will be charged for any rent in between when you moved out and the landlord got it rented again. The landlord can’t just sit around and not try to rent it again.

The bad thing is that you won’t likely be able to use the landlord as a good reference because you broke your lease. But, from what I’ve learned in law school (I’m just a law student, but am also a property manager of a 26 unit apartment building in California), you can still break your lease even though you said you’d be there a year, for instance. The landlord then has to make a reasonable effort to get it re-rented, but can then take the lost rent out of your security deposit.

But, of course, don’t expect a good reference.

Best of luck to you!

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Question by Pamela S: In MO can you be charged a break lease fee if go into a nursing home & can’t fulfill your apt lease?
My mother’s doctor recently discharged her from 22 days in the hospital to a nursing home. Now the apartment complex wants to charge her a break lease fee because she has to give up her apartment before the end of her lease.

Best answer:

Answer by Fort Sill Army Wife
Yes they can, sorry to say it but they are in business and do not care about the reason you are breaking a lease

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Question by Thomas: If I break a lease, Do I get instant bad credit or do they have to take me to court first?
I am looking to break my lease, and was wondering if they have to take me to court for the broken lease before I get bad credit for the action. How long does it take to post on my credit report from the time I break the lease. I live in Texas if that makes a difference.

Best answer:

Answer by dawgphish76
I broke a lease before…I’m not sure how it affected my credit score, but I couldnt lease another appartment untill I had verification that I paid off the remainder of what I owed…(the verification was faxed to the appartment I was trying to lease)

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Question by Lets get this straight: Break lease on apartment to rent a home instead?
My husband and I have found a big home in the neighborhood across the street from where our son goes to school. We would like to break our lease b/c it isn’t up until next June 2010. What are the rules and regulations on breaking a lease as far as paying it back? Is it a lump sum that we fork over or can we work something out that we can pay in payments?

Best answer:

Answer by HeatM1ser
The rules for ending the lease early will be stated in the lease itself. If there are no rules listed, then you can safely break the lease. If the landlord tries to sue you, he has a contractual agreement which does not define the terms of breaking your lease.

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Question by Krys: Is there a legal way a person can break lease at an apartment complex with a roommate?
my sister has a roommate who has begun to threaten her and throw parties all the time. She has told my sister that she cant use certain rooms in the apartment even though she pays half of the rent. Is there a way my sister can break lease with the roommate by paying her half to break lease?

Best answer:

Answer by Jennifer
I signed a 6 month lease with a girl that I worked with and we moved in together. 3 months later she turned psycho and I wanted out. We fought for about a month and in the end I had to agree to pay for a month’s rent beyond my move out date and let her keep the deposit – that I had paid fully myself. It was more than worth it to get out of there as she was running up the phone bill and not paying and it was in my name.
Have your sister talk to the room mate and see what the room mate wants to do – maybe she wants your sister to move out or she wants to move out herself.

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Question by bobby_jorgensen32: I may need to break my lease but there is no information on my lease?
I may need to break my lease, in month 6/12, due to a possible job across the state. I looked through my lease contract and there is nothing on breaking a lease or pre-termination. It just says that there is a 0 subletting fee. Does this mean that legally there should be no penalty for breaking lease because I did not agree to anything on it in writing?

Best answer:

Answer by Shawn
It depends on what kind of “apartment” you are renting. If it’s just a room in someone’s house or something similar, then they may let you go free and clear. However, if you’re renting from a basic landlord in an apartment complex, then there’s likely a stiff penalty implied in your lease agreement.

Look through it again. In almost every lease out there, especially in your first year of renting, there is no “fee”, but you are responsible for paying rent until the end of the lease term. Most landlords will let you out without penalty IF you find someone to take over payments immediately. If they have to find a replacement tenant they’ll usually keep you on the hook until they can rent the place out again. If you can’t afford to pay for 2 places at once, then try to find someone to take the place over for you. If your current place is in high demand, you may only end up paying for 1, maybe 2 months until it gets filled again. Sorry, but a lease is a binding contract for the term. There’s a pretty hefty penalty for breaking it.

If you still don’t quite know, just sit down with your landlord and have them explain it to you. Who knows, they could be sympathetic and let you go free and clear.

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