Tenant in unsafe situation

[Jason Coleman]

Hey BP,

I have a situation that I haven't come across before so I figured I'd post it. One of my tenants called me yesterday and explained to me that her and her BF (both on the lease) are splitting up. She was in tears and told me that she felt unsafe because he has turned verbally abusive. She said that he has not been physical so far but she is worried enough that she is staying at her friends house for the next couple of weeks. They just resigned a year lease in January. She asked me what would it take to get out of the lease? I don't have anything in the lease that really covers this situation. Technically, I could make them live out the entire term I guess but I don't want that on my conscience if something were to truly happen. What would be standard practice? Two months rent/60 day notice? This would mean I have to clean the unit, find a tenant, etc. 10 months prematurely. Just wondering if anyone has gone through a similar situation before and what did you do? They both have been good tenants up until this point so it really threw me off. Thanks for the help.

Jason

[Ned J.]

Stick to the lease and the law in your state. The reason the lease is going to be broken is not your problem..... stay out of it. In regards to states where a lease can be legally broken due to abuse, there would have to be evidence of the abuse to be legally binding....i.e police reports etc. It may be real, but lets face it, LOTS of tenants lie to landlords to get out of situations. Could be real....could be a huge load of BS......

I WOULD NOT reach out to the other tenant...... tell the wife that he needs to contact you to discuss his intentions. You have no idea the situation and what she has told him..... if the abuse is real, you may open a can of worms by making first contact with him, when he has ZERO idea she is thinking or planning this "escape".

The reason is a MOOT point.... stick to the lease and the law of your state.... PERIOD