What Happens When You Break An Apartment Lease In Texas?
My daughter moved out of her apartment with the lease ending in may 2010. Her dad signed as her guarantor. So what do the owners of the apartments usually do? She’s paid up till November 3rd. What should we do?
Tags: Apartment, Break, Happens, Lease, Texas, What, When
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on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Break A Lease.
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You will be charged a hefty fee for the early termination of the agreement… or, be sued….
Best to contact the manager and talk this out… settle for the best deal offered on the fee… or suffer the weight of the law….the suit will be for breech of contract… and can incur legal fees, ect…and, can be quite heavy in the end result….
Sorry…but… that’s the deal….
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Your daughter should not have moved out/abandoned the property without speaking to her landlord. Most landlords require 60 days written notice BEFORE you move out. You have to continue paying rent prior to moving. The tenant is also required to sign an intent to vacate notice informing management of when they are moving and why. Management will charge you penalty and administrative fees for breaking the lease. Your daughter should expect to have to pay several months rent plus administrative fees in one lump sum as penalty for breaking the lease. The broken lease will remain on her credit history for seven years and may make it difficult for her to find another landlord willing to rent to her.
The fact that your daughter abandoned the property without notice is very bad. The owners can take you to court and sue you for the rent through may 2010 plus all court costs. Her security deposit will most likely not be returned since she left without any notice. The owners will not be happy with her and she will get a bad reference the next time she’s in the market to rent an apartment.
Your daughter needs to communicate with her landlord before she gets a summons to report to court.
If it is a standard Texas Apartment Association lease, you will have to continue to pay the rent until it is occupied, or face eviction for non payment, where the judge will most likely order your daughter to pay the full amount of rent that the lease would have caused. You may be able to go in and speak with the manager at the apartments and tr to work something out. The number one thing in this situation is be flexible. Try to get out of the fee and lease, if not offer to pay a month or so to give them time to lease it again. Those two months worth of rent are far cheaper than going the eviction route. Go with the cheapest option available, and DO NOT try to play big time hard ball. Remember, you are asking them to let you out of a legally binding contract without fulfilling your end of the deal
http://www.taa.org/assets/PDF/renter/2007%20apartment%20lease%20-%20for%20website.pdf
If the lease looks similar to the one in the link, look toward the end in the What Ifs and read that info. If you can get a copy of your daughters actual lease, it may help you a lot more than you think. All that info must be, by law, included in that lease. If it is not and there is not signed contract stating anything regards to moving out that they can produce, tell them to shove it. Just make sure you complete any clean up and that everything is set to get the deposit back. Don’t expect it, but if you leave the apartment in excellent condition, they are much more willing to work with you on most everything.
I’m sorry to hear about the situation, but this is an unfortunate one when you leave in Texas.
I would suggest that you contact the property management and explain the situation. At least she did not get evicted. If it is a matter of breaking a lease, you can make some payment arrangement or even may find someone to take over the lease.
Please understand that if you don’t do anything, the apartment will report this to the credit bureaus and your credit and daughter credit files will be affected. Also, it will become extremely hard for you to rent an apartment.
They will sue her dad for any lease break fees and possibly rent through the end of the lease. There are general standards for what must be paid to break a lease, but the lease is what ultimately sets this.
You need to contact the landlord, and see if you can get a copy of her lease. The lease will state what must be paid for breaking the lease. See if this can just be paid so he can avoid getting sued and ruin his credit.
You should be prepared to pay your daughter’s rents until the lease expires. Meanwhile, contact the management to advise what has occurred, asking their assistance in helping to re-rent the unit as quickly as is possible. The quicker it is re-rented, the less you will need to pay out. If your daughter caused damages, expect to be required to pay for those as well.