Buying a house with a Tenant in it, wants to break lease

[Cali Skier]

We are buying a house and closing soon. During my final walk through, the tenant pulled me aside and said that he wanted to break the lease. I told him that the lease cannot be broken. That, just like I can't come in and write you a new lease you can't break the original lease, it comes with the house.

He made some key comments the more the conversation went on and I politely maintained that the original lease stands

• 1. He was not fully aware of what his wife was doing when they signed the original lease, but I reviewed the lease and both he and his wife signed it.
• 2.He stated that he was military and that there are stipulations other than receiving new orders to a new base that allow him to break the lease, he gave TDY as an example. I know that military can break a lease for a new assignment at a new base, and I commented that absolutely you can break the lease for being assigned new orders to a new location. That’s all I said about that, but in my mind, I did not know of any other reasons they would be allowed to break it. I thought TDY was something temporary but his home would still be here. We are researching this item.
• 3.He stated that he was prepared to take whatever legal impacts this might cause him in order to take care of his family.

I politely ended the conversation with a few statements about how I was going to have a weed company come out and spray the lawn, and left.

I thoroughly reviewed the lease again. It’s a pretty good lease, I might copy some of the items from it. It states that he can break the lease at any time under these conditions…

• 1.He forfeits all deposits
• 2.He must pay for all costs to lease the property to a new tenant (i.e. posting fees, rental signs, etc.)
• 3.He must pay full rent until its leased again
• 4.He must pay ½ months rent in an early termination fee.

If it comes up again I intend to offer that to him as an alternative.

There are about 9 months left on the lease, not sure why he would want to lose the entire deposit to go to another location an pay a new deposit and a pet deposit. It would cost him more money.

Why am I posting this? Just to get any advice on how to navigate this appropriately and keep it positive.

Thanks for any help... 

[Mike McCarthy]

I agree with @Marie-therese Tai you really don’t want to force someone to stay just because of the lease. If it were me I’d let him know that you reviewed the lease and per the lease terms, he owes $xxx. BUT, since we all want to work together, you’ll offer him $yyy IF he leaves the house clean, free of junk, and is fully vacated on whatever date. You get most of the termination fees and such, and he feels like you’re doing him a favor.