Tenant asking to get out of Lease

[Kevin Reinell]

Hey guys, so I have a tenant that moved in to my rental with his wife and baby and signed a year lease. Since moving in they have had trouble and there has now been a restraining order filed against the husband and he no longer lives in the unit but agreed to pay rent for the wife who lives there still with the baby. So my unit is occupied with the wife who pays nothing to me, and the husband is living in another unit now and still paying the rent to me for his wife and baby. He called me today and asked if I can release him from the lease....what should I do, any advice is greatly appreciated!

[Leah Slaughter]

Releasing him from the lease releases him from financial obligation. If she is not the breadwinner and she is not the one paying the bills, then you do not want to release him. That said, this is a disaster waiting to happen and it might be good to work with the wife to help her find another place or to let her know that she needs to find another place if she cannot afford the rent. There are very strict laws in the state about family violence situations so your hands are tied in many ways, but who knows if he’s going to stop paying the rent any day. The minute he is released he probably would. Or possibly would. I’ve just seen it happen too many times! We see similar situations to this when one roommate moves out and wants to be released even though the lease is still ongoing, and we never release them because we want to hold them accountable for everything under that lease until the end of it. It’s even worse if the remaining occupants cannot afford it or qualify on their own. I assume that is the case here with the wife.