Tenants want to terminate lease early

[Janelle Shaw]

Hi Biggerpockets community! So grateful for you all. I have a scenario that I haven’t had to deal with until now and appreciate any and all advice!

My tenant wants to break their lease because parents are moving from Asia to the US and impacts their living situation. They also cited the pandemic creating a lot of challenges heightened the importance of physical proximity to family in Austin as they are also expecting their 2nd child. They want to live closer to family in Austin and therefore need to terminate their occupancy early.

The lease clearly states that tenant shall not be released from rent liability unless they get writing from me. I want to be understanding but they were supposed to stay until the end of the year and they were pretty high maintenance tenants. I put about $25k in upgrades before they moved in and after they moved in accommodated their additional “high” maintenance requests. They are a year into their lease. They seem like the type of tenants that would hire a lawyer, but then again in the lease they signed, it seems pretty legally binding.  The townhouse is a  3 bedroom 2 full 2 half bath house in Virginia.  As mentioned, they are currently a family of 3 with one on the way.  I would think they have enough room for their parents and growing family.  I'm just concerned that if I cite sorry no can do bc of paragraph 3, they'll take me to court.  Do they have a leg to stand on or am I safe due to the language in the contract paragraph: "Tenant shall not be released from liability for rent and other charged due during lease term unless landlord agree in writing to release tenant from such liability."

Thanks as always!  Not sure if this is a RE lawyer question.  Also looking to connect with real estate lawyers as I start to grow my portfolio.  

[Scott M.]

@Greg Scott the reason they want to break the lease is insanely important as most states, including Virgina where this house is allows tenants to break leases for specific reasons. 

As a landlord you should never disregard the reason.  You need to know your local laws to know if the reason they are breaking the lease is valid or not.

In this case, they are not.  

Landlord is required to take "reasonable steps" to rerent the unit and you can only charge the outgoing tenant for the time it was vacant. 

Rents have skyrocketed in the year this tenant has occupied the home so if you chose to look at this as a positive, that is a solid angle, you are likely to rent it for a decent amount more.