Tenant Breaking Lease - Landlord Forum thread 326035

Tenant Breaking Lease by Daniel (CA) on October 21, 2014 @02:25

in California

Tenant(1) wants to move out before end of lease. moved in April 2014 for a 1 year lease.
Tenant(1) is nice enough to find someone (Tenant(2)) to replace her.

Question 1: do I hold onto the SD until Tenant(1) lease expires. isn't Tenant(1) still obligated until 1 year expires, what if Tenant(2) doesn't work out, is Tenant(1) considered like an guarantor for Tenant(2)?
I fully understand that I cannot charge 2 separate tenants for the same place. but this may be different for the SD obligation. ( I would send Tenant(1)a SD statement within 21 days showing why the SD is still being held by LL)
Question 2: Tenant(1) submitted a notice to vacate. how do I answer it without waiving my rights as a LL?
Do I write " your notice to vacate is conditionally accepted as follows: A) Tenant(2) signs lease and successfully pays through March 2015. B) .......

FYI. a walkthrough will be conducted in between the 2 occupancies.
at this point Tenant(1) is expecting to pay through Nov 7 and she thinks Tenant(2) would be able to move in the next day. While I would like to accommodate that; this is unrealistic, as I do expect that I will need to prepare the unit for the new occupant.

So I wrote back this to the tenant.
I will get back to you
I will be meeting with the applicant on Tuesday.
Please let me know when I can schedule the walk through when you are present.
At this point , you are still obligated to pay for the entire month of November. Upon a successful transition, you will be owed a refund.
Because if the applicant changes their mind, your obligation is not satisfied.

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Re: Tenant Breaking Lease by Anonymous on October 21, 2014 @02:36	[ Reply ]

What does your lease say? Does it allow the tenant to sublet, or assign the lease?

Re: Tenant Breaking Lease by Anonymous on October 21, 2014 @03:00	[ Reply ]

Take a step back, you are involving yourself more then is needed. You have a couple options. 1. Your tenant sublets the property in which case they are essentially renting the home you are renting to them but are still entirely responsible for the rent every month. You do not release the SD to tenant one. They are still the tenant responsible for the preformance of the lease, and still the tenant by contract. You should have zero involvement in the sublease, if you approve the subtenant then a judge will treat it as if you had signed the original lease with the subtenant and release tenant one from responsibility. Or 2. You tell them that if they break the lease you will pursue all rents owed to you under the law. Your lease allows your tenant to sublease or it doesn't either way it's still tenant one's responsibility to get rent paid to you. If not you pursue them in court if needed. My solution would be to tell them you will screen the tenant they provided. If tenant two doesn't qualify, you tell the tenant one they are responsible for the obligations under the lease until you find someone to rent it. Unfortunately, you don't get to have it both ways. If you accept tenant number two you sign a lease with them and tenant one is released from any responsibility.

Re: Tenant Breaking Lease by Anonymous on October 21, 2014 @08:31	[ Reply ]

I would not hold the first tenant's security deposit, but get it back to her in the time allotted by state law. As for the incoming tenant, if she has very good credit, take a check for the security deposit, and deposit that check no earlier than 7 days after you have sent the original tenants deposit back to her.Collect the first, or the first and last month's rent in cash from the incoming tenant. Two months rent is generally enough funds to guarantee that the incoming tenant is serious about the rental. I did have a tenant that was late getting in, and gave me extra time to get the house ready. So I gave him the extra time when he moved out. Get an exact date from the exiting tenant, in writing when she will be out. She may be out before the beginning of the next month, or rental period. And the next tenant may want the place sooner than expected. As long as you can have the pre-rental checks done by the end of the month......

Re: Tenant Breaking Lease by John Brayton (Massachusetts) on October 21, 2014 @12:15	[ Reply ]

Go through the same qualification process with the new tenant that you would any other tenant. Once you have qualified that tenant, get a deposit from him or her. Once you have that deposit, agree in writing to terminate the first tenancy early. Operate just as if the lease had originally terminated on the newly specified date. I doubt that doing anything other than this is legal, and even if it is it would provide you with very little additional protection. John

Re: Tenant Breaking Lease. New Tenant by Anonymous (CA) on October 21, 2014 @17:21	[ Reply ]

I think that basically you are agreeing to an early termination of the current lease without a fee. Decide whether you want to allow a sublease--in which case you would keep the original tenant liable for rent and damages. I would not. Decide if you want a new tenant with full screening. I would be thinking of a new tenant and a new lease and a new security deposit. I also would charge the current an early termination fee for breaking the lease--something small like $100 because it is work for you doing this.