Can I sue a tenant who broke a 1yr lease halfway through the lease?
I have an 8 unit apt complex and had a tenant break a lease with no notice and 6 months left on the lease. Can I sue for the remainder of the lease? Even if I had another tenant, that lives in the complex, move in a week later, but then that left that tenants apt empty, which is still empty.
You can pursue a small claim for the remainder of the rent owed, or your losses up until the point the apartment became tenanted again. You’ve may have filled the apartment but are still losing income because that act made another property empty. Do you have the tenant’s details so that you can locate them and issue them with the claim documents?
However, you will have to show that you’re trying to mitigate your losses and that you’re currently actively looking for another tenant to move into the vacant apartment.
You cannot sue for rent once a new tenant moves in, but you can sue for any rent for periods when the unit was empty, plus penalties for breaking the lease, cleaning fees, etc. Consult a real estate attorney to see what you can and cannot include in the lawsuit.
Generally, you can sue for unpaid rent as long as you make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant, and you can only sue for the rent for the time that you did not have a tenant.
If a tenant that is already in your complex moves from their unit to the vacant unit you can probably still make the case that you are losing rent as a result of the broken lease, but you must be attempting to “mitigate” the loss by advertising the empty unit and showing it to interested tenants.
No, since you moved in another tenant you are only entitled to one weeks rent.
It does not matter what agreement you have with the new tenant, you filled the unit that has the lease dispute.
SURE you can sue.
BUT if you filled their unit with another tenant, that should limit your ability to collect. . . because you have duty to mitigate damages by re-renting. Which you did, and former tenant is not responsible for another apartment. So this may be a problem. Depends on what judge says, whether tenant contests it, etc.
Suggest you turn it over to collection agency first, to ding his credit and increase your chances of recovering something without being out of pocket as you would be by suing him.
NO! It is illegal to collect double rent. Since someone moved in right away you had no real loss, so you have no grounds to sue.
The fact that it was someone that already lived there is immaterial and is your issue to deal with. The leaving tenant had nothing to do with that. They are no longer responsible the day THEIR unit is occupied. It does not legally matter if that left you with a different unit empty.
If there was a lease break fee stated in the lease then you can sue them for that but that is it.
Before you sue anyone for any reason, it is mandatory you look to the end if you win. Can you collect from the defendant? Does this person have any money you can garnish or seize? How much will it cost to go after collection on this person?
When you assess that then decide if you have case. There is no point in suing a person who has no money unless you enjoy the thrill of victory or know this person will have money in the future.
You screwed up allowing the other tenant to move in so quickly..Now you have an empty with no recourse..The former tenants Lease is attached to their unit which is now rented…Nothing else matters. If you file claim—you risk counter-suit–Its rented you cant collect double and the empty you have now has nothing to do with the former tenant.Sorry
Remember ! You can not get blood from a stone .
if you are going to rent to people you should be more informed on what is good and what isn’t good or right. the laws vary depending where you live. that is what a lease is for, to keep that from happening. yes, you can sue, but what that all entails depends on the law in your area. look it up.
Start and look at the conditions in your lease agreement. I would think you could hold the first tenant liable only for his apartment not for the apartment whose lease he was not on.
what kind of a lease did you have with the first tenant…did you sign yet another lease with the second tenant.
if you did sign a lease with the second tenant, you just left the first one off the hook. you can’t collect to rents for the same place.
by allowing the second person to move in, you pretty much said you re-rented the place.
what you are asking depends on what you did or didn’t do. states vary
with laws.
If you found another renter for that unit, you cannot bill the vacated renter for rent. You can’t collect double rent for the same unit. If the second tenant broke their lease to move to the other unit, you could maybe sue them for rent, but the vacated tenant is free and clear.