Re: URGENT arrogant tenants breaking the lease

Re: URGENT arrogant tenants breaking the lease by Anonymous on October 31, 2009 @11:51

Are you nuts? Its their problem if they are having hard times. Not the LL's. Does the mortgage company care if the tenants (or you) are having a hard time? Will the credit bureaus care? Will they excuse the lapse in payments or allow your credit to remain good? Of course not. Renting places is a business. You must treat it like a business or you are only a charity in disguise. Soon you will be BK following this idea.

And you think the LL can just go find another tenant when these tenants break the lease? Its November already and the poster is in a northern state. Cold weather is already arriving. This is the down season in the north. Very few tenants want to move between November and February. Its too cold, wet, snowy, inconvenient, and its the holiday season. No one wants to move. Very few good tenants are available during this period. Most of the people moving will be doing so because they have to (evictions, foreclosures, and the like.) Chances are that unit will be empty all winter with the LL paying the heating bill to save the pipes. Why should the LL be forced into financial problems because the tenants have them?

If these tenants break their lease, do their deposit statement (withholding their deposit to pay for the rent, utilities they owe, advertising costs, agent fees to find a new tenant, and so forth.) Send them this statement within 30 days are required by state law. Then sue the tenants in court for the rent until it is re-rented (or for the rest of the lease since Mass. law says you have no duty to find a new tenant).

This is the tenant's problem. Do not allow it to become yours.

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No mitigation? by Va Landlady (VA) on October 31, 2009 @12:06	[ Reply ]
WOW I did not know that in MA you don't have to mitigate (hurry up and get it re-rented). Are you sure? I had heard that MA was one of the most tenant-friendly states!

Mass law... by MassLL (MA) on October 31, 2009 @15:12

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..does not allow deductions from scurity deposit for anything other than rent owed and physicial damages to the property. Advertising and other costs for rerenting cannot be deducted. MGL chapter 186, section 15b, 4, iii.

Also, the Mass dept of Consumer Affairs and Business gulations says that per Mass law, the LL has a duty to mitiate damages when the tenant breaks a lease and find a new tenant. The tenant who broke the lease is l;iable for the balance of the lease, but nthe LL must make all "reasonable effort" to find a new one.

Mr Jones, start looking for a new tenant and get and keep proof that you're looking. Keep any if the sec deposit to cover physical damages and unpaid rent. Following Mass l;aw regarding sec deposit. You can then sue the tenant for any rent not paid by a new tenant. Have VERY good proof of what you did to find a new tenant