Selling a rental at the end of a lease, but tenant decides to break the lease to move earlier. Are they liable for remaining rent in Texas?

[Matt Sullivan]

All,

I would appreciate some feedback from Texas Landlords.  I understand that when a tenant in Texas breaks their lease, the Landlord has the responsibility to mitigate the loss by advertising and trying to get a new tenant in as soon as possible.  In this situation, my wife and I have decided to sell the property at the end of the tenant's lease.  This is on 1 December, and my wife and I wanted to give the tenant a heads up since this falls between major holidays as well as the middle of a school year.  We even offered to extend the lease 6 months to allow the tenants' kids to finish out the school year.  The tenants just came back and told us they wanted to break the lease because now they will buy a house and will try to close in the next 30 days.  The tenants stated they will maintain the house for a bit as it will take time to fix up this new house and move out of our house into theirs.  So we are looking at our property being vacant probably by the end of August.  So the question: are the tenants liable for the remaining lease?  I know they "should be" but Texas Property Code is clear that the Landlord must mitigate the damages by re-renting as soon as possible.  But we won't rent because we need to get it ready, and will sell it.  Can we hold the tenants liable for the missing rent while we are readying the house and putting it on the market through the sale of the house/end of the lease, which ever is first?  Or are we out of luck?  Texas Property Code isn't really clear on this instance.  Thank you for the help.

Matt S.