Tenant wants to break lease (CA)

[Jeremy H.]

I have a tenant who says they are buying a house and must break the 1 year lease and want to move out November 1.  (so it's not even 30 day notice! 12 days away?)

They have just been here the 4th month.   

What do you charge as a settlement?   (Personally the tenant is an acquaintance of mine so $0 is an option, but in normal circumstances how do you figure it out?)   The lease is CA realtor form and it doesn't say what might be the penalty as far as I recall.

 is it ethical to start showing potential new tenants while they are there?

[Roy N.]

@Jeremy H.

If they are leaving, they are leaving, so best to work with them.

That said, in the places where we operate, a tenant on an annual lease is obligated to pay their rent until you relet the unit or, until the termination date of the lease.  Conversely, you are obligated to make commercial best efforts to re-rent the unit as soon as possible.

If your current tenants move out next week, you can clean-up the unit (should not be too bad if they have only been there since June) and start showing it as available.  At this point in-time your tenant likely will have to pay November's rent (as you are unlikely to turn it over for November), but if you rent it for December 01, s/he is relieved of her/his obligations.