Lease early termination fee

[Clayton Sneider]

Hey,

I have a tenant in my first rental property that wants to break the lease early. There is no early termination clause in my lease (I will add that in now, lesson learned). I would like to charge him ~1/2 month early termination fee, but he is fighting it.

Can I legally charge this early termination fee, even though it is not in my lease? It seems crazy to me that a tenant should be able to just terminate a lease at any time, with no penalty, whether it is in the lease or not.

Thanks.