Breaking a lease in PA

[Bradley Miller]

A friend of mine is renting an apartment in Philadelphia. She is relocating to NY for a new job but is in a lease that lasts until June. She told me she is on the hook for 5 months and they also will be keeping her security if she wants to terminate the lease. What is Pennsylvania’s laws regarding this? Thanks.

[Gregory H.]

It's called mitigating losses, and its basic contract law, which applies country-wide, regardless of state ... especially in residential. They have to market the unit for rent. Your friend would be on the hook for any costs related to re-renting the unit, and would also be on the hook for the rent for the time it takes to find another tenant. Any professional landlord would know this, so either her landlord is an idiot, or they're just assuming she won't question anything since they don't want to go through the effort of leasing in the winter. Also, if they tell her that she is on the hook and they're keeping her security deposit ... what incentive does she have to cooperate at all?