How to break a lease?

Question

Hey guys,I have a tenant that has asked to be let out of his lease, I am ok with it because he is consistently on rent and has broke 3 of his 4 windows in his apt. He agreed to forfeit his deposit in order to pay this months rent/late fees, and to replace the most recent window. I have not walked the unit yet but I'm sure there is more problems as well inside to for me and him to discuss. While i have the leverage of his deposit and him on the lease is there away to address other damages? I am sure he smoked weed inside the unit. also I know I need to document the lease break but I am not sure how.Thank you for taking the time to read all this guys!

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I'll jump on board with everyone else. Never use the deposit for last month's rent. It is your leverage to enforce the terms of the lease. Once it's gone, the tenant can walk away and leave you with nothing. Best case scenario, he moves out without any further damages but he will leave you with broken windows, a dirty rental, and probably some more interior damages. You'll be out hundreds of dollars and quite possibly an entire months rent when you consider cleaning, repairs, and vacancy.

Worst case scenario? You're going to discover a lot more damage inside, a lot more cleaning than you expected, he won't repair the latest broken window or the three before that, and he probably won't even be out by the scheduled moving date. All told, you'll lose two months of rent income or more.

Tighten your standards. My example: rent on the first, late fee on the 5th, start eviction on the 10th.

Even if the tenant promises they'll pay you double on the 11th, you still stick to your process. You can always stop it if they make good on their promise but in most cases, they are liars and will not make good unless you show them you are serious.

Nicole A. · Answer

Given what's been said so far, to add, he needs to move asap if he wants to break the lease. Give him a week. If he stays, treat him as a normal tenant and file for eviction as soon as he is late on rent. When he moves out, you can just cancel the eviction process.

Anthony Wick · Answer

A Tenant doesn't "agree" to forfeit his deposit in order to pay last months rent. If they don't pay last months rent, and move out, you keep their deposit to pay for what they owe you. And, you also then bill them for other damages that are a part of the lease.

If you want him out, then fine, agree to release him from his lease. But don't agree to accepting his deposit as rent. Agree to merely let him out of future months if the place goes unrented. Which I wouldn't actually do. I would tell him I will attempt to find another tenant. If I do, then I will release him from his lease. It's called attempt to mitigate your losses, which is required by law in my state.

Joe Splitrock · Answer

What other people are trying to say is that since you agreed to lease termination and took deposit for rent, he leaves owing you nothing for rent. What people are saying is that deposit should be used for damages first, then unpaid rents. By taking deposit for rent, you imply there is no damage expense.

I don't think what you did is necessarily a bad approach. People do way worse things, such as not only give deposit back but also pay people to leave (cash for keys). The most important thing is getting him out and getting it rerented. Try to minimize financial loss in the process which is what you did.

You can still try to pursue him for damages. I would send a summary after your walk through that shows deposit minus rent and minus damages. It never hurts to ask for compensation. The decision you need to make is if it is worth going to court to get the money. Even if you get a judgement, it may be impossible to collect. If it is a small dollar amount of damage, I don't waste time going to court.

Mike Cumbie · Answer

@Samuel Fletcher Hardy

I think what others saying (And i agree) is file the eviction now. Of course he agreed to deposit being this months rent. If deposit is $900 and rent is $900 you basically agreed to giving him back his whole security deposit and leave it in whatever condition you want. By the way I'm not even going to start eviction proceedings until next month so it you stay over for an extra week or two we can start the month long process then.

His negotiation was $900 for January rent, February rent and all damages

If he does leave you have to start a small court claims (figuring out where he lives because why would he tell you if you are not sending back a deposit) for anything over.

Good luck and you can make it work out.

Andrew Durosola · Answer

Just A general question since I recently had to file my first eviction.  If you start the process pay the fees and get the court date set.  Why stop the eviction if the person vacates at this point?  Don't you want other landlords to see that eviction had to be filed before the person vacated on their own?

Samuel Fletcher Hardy · Answer

@Bob B.

I inherited this tenant and the old landlords lease does not cover the subject. There lease is very poorly put together and is missing a ton of times.

Bob B. · Answer

What does your lease state about early termination?