Tenants breaking one year lease california - Landlord Forum thread 360987

Tenants breaking one year lease california by Blue on December 3, 2020 @13:43

Hi, my tenant is breaking a one year lease. He has agreed to pay for the rent until I rent the apt out. The question is can I raise the rent when I rent it out again? I didn't know if I have to legally rent it out at the same price of the broken lease. I read somewhere that I don't have to. Just fair market value He had rented the apt below market value and the rents are significantly higher now. Thank you.

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Re: Tenants breaking one year lease california by Garry on December 3, 2020 @20:31	[ Reply ]

Yes, you can try to rent it out for a higher rent. The Q is, how much higher ? For instance, if your T has been paying $1,000/mo, you could try to raise the new rent to, say, $1200 max. That would be a 20% increase. BUT, if you tried to raise it 50%, to $1,500, that would be a red flag to a judge. A judge may say you are not really trying to get it rerented, but are essentially trying to make the former T be on the hook for the whole year's worth of rent. Judges don't like that. You say the T was paying below market rent. But that's only your opinion, not a fact. How long has your T been renting from you ? If it's been just 2-3 years, rents probably are not "significantly" higher. If he's been there 10 years, with only small rent increases, then yes, he is now paying a much lower rent that what the fair market value would be today.

Re: Tenants breaking one year lease california

Re: Tenants breaking one year lease california by lpadave on December 3, 2020 @22:23	[ Reply ]

Where in ca are you ? Many cities have the own additional laws and guidelines including rent control. As a general matter, most judges don't like to see LLs getting more than two months rent on early lease defaults. They feel that if it's taking a LL more than that to re rent,.....there's something amiss. Many of us are putting clauses for early lease termination in our documents,...for two months rent on departure and tenant is released.. It's worked well for me. And that's as liquidated damages,...not subject to actual proof of lost rent.

Re: Tenants breaking one year lease california by Brendan on December 22, 2020 @22:02	[ Reply ]

For new tenant you can raise it whatever you want. You cannot try to collect the difference from old tenant. Cal rent control law from 1-1-19 says for existing tenants you can raise rent 5 % per year cap plus the cost of living incease, which was 3% I believe in 2019. (8% total)