Investor · Athens, GA · Member since 2015 · 205 posts · 66 votes
Howdy. I have a tenant whose husband recently committed suicide. Because of this the wife is saying she cannot afford the rent payment and needs to break the lease. Normally I would not allow it, but given these circumstances I am willing to make an exception. She only has a few more months on the lease anyway so its not going to be worth it to try to evict etc. It's just a ****** situation no matter how you look at it.
My question is how do I go about doing this? i.e. what document do I need to create to execute this. I do intend to keep the security deposit as she is in breach of contract (yes my lease allows for it). I don't anticipate her trying to give me any problems with that but just want to make sure I'm covering my bases here. Thanks in advance.
Simply have her to write down that she's giving notice and all of her stuff will be moved out by X date and the house will be cleaned and keys returned to you on X date. Then both of you sign and date it and keep a copy. Then follow the normal move out procedures.
@Brad E. I second @Theresa Harris advice. You might check to see if your state has promulgated forms that you can use. In Texas, there's a lease termination form available that should cover all situations. If not, you can always ask Chat GPT to draft something up for you.