Early lease Termination

[Gracy Josh]

I have rented a house to a tenant and the lease agreement states that 1 month rent + 2 months notice in case of early termination. The current lease ends on oct 31 2014. The tenant has given notice today and since they will be obliged for 2 months notice till oct 4th and the balance days for lease ending is 27 days for which they are asking to waive the early termination fee. I'm new to the rental process, Please help me on how to handle this case?

[Rick Baggenstoss]

I also have some experience here.  Long story short, you should allow the termination as proposed.

You're tenant is obligated for the full amount of rent during the agreement period.  Early termination is a pre-determined 'fair amount' to cover for damages from early termination.  Since there's really not that much left on the lease and you have plenty of warning, you won't have a leg to stand on regarding damages from loss of rent.  You'd lose more defending it.

Your early termination clause may be a little aggressive - 3months rent.  2 months I've heard is defensible.  

You also need to watch for pissing off the tenant on their way out.  You may end up having no security deposit as leverage and having a pissed off tenant.  That's a bad combination.