Broken Lease - Landlord Forum thread 358186

Broken Lease by Jason on July 16, 2018 @21:14

Tenant signed lease for 01/01/18-12/31/18 and just informed me that she is moving at the end of the month because they found a cheaper and better apartment.

Do I keep ALL of the security deposit or should it be pro-rated or something?

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Re: Broken Lease by L. on July 16, 2018 @21:47	[ Reply ]

What state?

Re: Broken Lease by Garry on July 17, 2018 @00:34	[ Reply ]

First, if they plan on moving, there is nothing you can do to stop them. They did sign a lease with you, and they must honor that lease. Once they are out, you must clean the place up if needed, and repair any damages they left you. Then you must advertise it for rent again, take apps, and rerent it again. Only after you have it rerented again, can you figure your loss against their deposit. I'm sure they will owe you a LOT more than their deposit will cover, but you must show that on paper. Then it will be your choice as to if you want to take them to court, or not, for what they owe you. In most states, you have to MITIGATE your damages, meaning you cannot just leave your place set vacant till the end of the old lease, and then take the former Ts to court for the several months remaining on the lease. You must show that you TRIED to rerent it ASAP, and if you lost , say, 2 months of rent before you got it rerented, then that's the amount of rent you can take the Ts to court for. You should also be able to charge them utilities for those months, if the former T was supposed to pay them, and also the advertising costs you had to pay, to get it rented again. Good Luck

Re: Broken Lease by Frankly on July 17, 2018 @17:32	[ Reply ]

Charge rent until the place is reoccupied. Then send a bill for whatever security doesn't cover. Easy money.

Re: Broken Lease by LAMAC66 on July 18, 2018 @07:42	[ Reply ]

Depends on state law and how you wrote your lease.

Re: Broken Lease