Duplex escrow closes June 11, should I break my current lease?

[Ian Jimeno]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are closing on our first property in San Diego, an off-market duplex in the North Park/Normal Heights area.  We are going to live in the 3 bed 2 bath unit, and the other unit is a Studio with an inherited tenant whose lease is up at the end of the year. We're looking for roommates to house-hack the unit with us, but that's a separate discussion for now...

We are currently renting in Clairemont, San Diego with the Duplex escrow closing on June 11th.  With our escrow coming up quick, we gave the property management 30 days notice that we would like to vacate our current unit and will be living in the Duplex by June 16th.  The PM did not take it nicely, which is understandable, but we don't want to pay for the mortgage AND have to pay for the rented space in the rented Clairemont abode that we will not be living in. 

According to our lease agreement, "... in the event of early termination by Tenant prior to completion of the original term of the Agreement, Tenant shall also be responsible for lost Rent, rental commissions, advertising expenses, and painting costs necessary to ready Premises for re-rental. Landlord may withhold any such amounts from Tenant's security deposit." Security Deposit in our case is one month's rent: $2,000

Upon hearing our breach-of-contract request, the PM stated, 

"We are holding you responsible for the full term of the lease including and not limited to all rents , collections fees, broker fees , legal fees and any fees associated with the breach of your agreement.   You must continue to pay the rent on time per lease agreement until the property is rented to a qualified tenant plus you will be charged for any fees associated with leasing, showing the property, etc."

Mind you, we have been good tenants and have kept the unit tidy with no mishaps with PM before this encounter.   The lease ends August 31, 2019.

Do you see any way my wife and I can breach this contract legally?  Should we keep paying the $2,000 for three more months (June, July, and August) or take the breach-of-contract hit? What repercussions should we expect if we breach?

It all comes down to the numbers, I'm just not familiar with the costs of early termination of a lease.   We're VERY excited for this new property, and we'd like to move into the Duplex ASAP to get settled and get going on finding another tenant to live with us.  

Thank you for your time.