Comments on: What Happens If You Break An Apartment Lease?

By: Dee

Dee — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:17:24 +0000

Worse case scenario:
You have to pay for the 10 months you wont be staying there.
If you dont, they’ll send you to court and you’ll have a judgement…possibly.
Usually, they’ll just take your deposit and/or charge you rent until they find a new renter.

By: woundshu

woundshu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:28:03 +0000

worst case is you get evicted for breaking the contract, it depends on what you did tho, and sometimes you can talk with your landlord and maybe fix the problem or work out a solution but you can be evicted for breakign a contract as far as i know

By: Zeta

Zeta — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:27:20 +0000

I did that before and had to pay the next month’s rent. I didn’t tell the landlord I was moving, which was stupid of me.

By: Bobby D

Bobby D — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:27:51 +0000

It should be spelled out clearly in your lease agreement what would happen if it’s broken.
Sometimes you don’t get your damage deposit back. I think it really depends on the lease you signed.

By: mom2all

mom2all — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:27:51 +0000

Worst case scenario: You could be sued for the remainder of the lease, lose your deposit, have this go on your credit report, and not have any good references available.

By: Chris H

Chris H — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:55:30 +0000

In a lease you have signed an agreement that you will pay them the monthly amount for the entire duration of the lease. So, if you lease an apartment for a year, and after six months you move out, you are in breach of contract UNLESS you pay the remaining six months of lease that is due. That’s the black and white of it.
In most states, however, the apartment owner/management has to make a good faith to find a replacement tenant, and when they do, you only owe them the amount to cover the period the apartment was vacant, plus any fees/penalties that are stated in the lease. You may have to pay their costs to find a new tenant as well. They may or may not report it to a credit bureau as well.
Then you can get into the whole area of sub-letting, lease takeovers, etc.
If you really want to know more about it, I recomend the books by Nolo Press.

By: SexyTroj

SexyTroj — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:44:12 +0000

They might put it on your credit report.
If you do that, make sure you have other references to use (use a friend and say that you rented from him).