Tenant wants out of shared lease

[Anthus Williams]

I've lurked a fair amount on these forums but have never posted before. Thanks in advance for any help on this.

I have a property which three students have leased together. The lease ends in August. Now one of the tenants wants to get out of the lease early. The other two plan to remain through the end of the lease. I'm not really sure how to approach this situation:

1) I could just let her out of the lease, i.e. treat it as though the other two are assuming it. Will this cause problems for me if I the other two try to break their lease later and I want to charge them for it?

2) I could divide the remaining lease and let her pay a third of that. Not sure if this is strictly fair as the full rent would still be being paid under the terms of the lease by the other two tenants.

I've gotten a lot of value from the insights on offer here on Bigger Pockets, and I'd appreciate any insight as to how you have handled similar issues in the past.

[Dorothy Butala]

I use an early termination clause that allows early termination of a lease should the tenant pay a fee equal to two months of rent. Thirty days noticed needs to be giving and the termination fee must be submitted at the same time as the 30 day notice in order for the termination to go into effect. I only had it happen once where one tenant wanted to leave, and the other two wanted to stay. They were students, but I had them sign the lease jointly and severally (some landlords have students sign individual leases). I have students and roommates sign an agreement that if there are circumstances where one wants to leave, the other(s) will be responsible for the full amount of rent, and the student/roommate who is leaving will have to pay a fee equal to their share of the rent (equally divided rent by the number of occupants). In most instances when the termination fee is applied, it is not in the case of students/roommates, but rather market rate residents, and they would be required to pay the full termination fee if all residents wanted to move out. The reason I have the departing roommate pay the fee even though the other residents are staying is because I will draft up a new lease that does not have the departing roommate's name or info on it, that way if the roommates who are staying stop paying and have to be evicted, the departing tenant has no liability on the lease and will not be connected with an eviction. The fee they pay covers the administrative costs of updating leases and tenant ledgers as well as re-keying the property, to ensure the departed roommate does not have access to the unit once the termination goes into effect.  The state of Pennsylvania considers a fee equal to two months of rent reasonable as a termination fee. I would recommend checking with your landlord association, or state lobby for landlords to find out what the guidance is for for the amount allowed to be charged for early termination in your state.  Hope this helps.