Renter leaving before end of lease

[Steve B.]

Hi all, Please help me out. I have a tenant who notified me he can no longer afford to rent due to life changes(kids and work). He notified me in April and he paid rent for May stating he needs to move out at end of month and get utilities out of his name. His lease doesn't end until November 30th and it states he pays for rent and utilities for duration of lease whether occupied or not. I have already advertised it and shown it a few times with his permission. I have only received a few apps back and no viable tenants at this time. I'm hoping to have a good tenant ready by the time he moves out and if that's the case I have no problem as he gave me good notice and has been a good tenant for 6 months However, if I do not, what actions do you recommend? I am in Illinois. This is a single family home. Do I just let him leave and not pursue any payments to prevent any issues? If so can I keep deposit for lack of rent and utilities? Do I tell him ahead of time he needs to pay rent and utilities until I have a renter? Or does that put me at risk for him to damage property or set up camp and quit paying, forcing eviction? Do I wait until he's got his stuff out? Do I try to force/convince him to at least keep utilities in his name and paid until I have a tenant in place? Any advice is greatly appreciated, we are still pretty new to this game and trying to do the right thing without losing too much. Thanks, Steve

[Lynn McGeein]

I prefer tenants who tell me they can no longer afford the unit versus just waiting til I have to evict for non-payment.  I just had this happen to me where they received a better job offer but need to leave early.  They agreed to let me show unit without notice on certain days, with notice on others, and I agreed that as long as they did that, I would agree to release them from the lease.  I'd much rather have the unit empty for a few weeks in June or July than be searching for a new tenant in Nov/Dec/Jan, anyway, so just keep going forward with your advertising, showing, etc., until you find an applicant.  If you have diligently tried to rent unit but cannot find a replacement, then you can keep deposit for nonpayment of rent during vacancy until it is rented out again.  So if 7 days vacant, keep 7 days' worth of rent and utilities.   If you do find a willing applicant, make sure you have a release of lease signed by current tenant before entering into agreement with new one or you could create problems for yourself if he decides not to leave after all.   I had them sign the release before showing the property to others.