Re: Tenants broken lease rent owed. - Landlord Forum thread 321596

Re: Tenants broken lease rent owed. by Anonymous on July 21, 2014 @19:35

This person has broken the lease by leaving 6 months early. Normal standard practice is to charge two months rent for breaking a lease. However, you made two mistakes about accepting the SD. First of all, the SD is not to be used for a penalty; it is to be used for cleaning and damages. Now you have no leverage since she did not pay you the half months rent. No, you can't take her to court for the next six months rent since you agreed to keep her SD instead. Bad move. You could have at least recovered two months rent, not six.

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Re: Tenants broken lease rent owed. by anonymous on July 21, 2014 @20:39	[ Reply ]

Except that it is doubtful that the tenant would ever actually pay the six months of rent for breaking a lease early. The mention of two months' rent being a standard lease-breaking fee is new to me, unless you put that in your lease (which is a good idea). Personally, when this "lease breaking/can I leave early" issue arises, I just work with the tenants and let them leave early. I don't get deposit debates. The tenants appreciate it and so far I have been fortunate. I see the "holding them to the lease term" definitely as a commercial lease issue and also residential hard-to-rent units.

Re: Tenants broken lease rent owed. by Anonymous on July 21, 2014 @22:10	[ Reply ]

As per many posts on this forum over the years, a local judge is more apt to award two months rent to a LL for a broken lease. They will not consider six months because most likely you have re-rented the place after two months and you cannot double dip. It is a good idea to put this in your lease if you have this problem. I rent primarily to military so I have had to break leases several times under the SCRA law.