Tenant trying to vacate with 7 months left on lease

[Chad Reynoso]

Hi all quick question. My tenant just informed me he has a serious financial situation and will not be able to pay rent this month and  potentially moving forward. He has mentioned he would vacate but the problem is he has 7 months left on a year lease and is not paying for this month. I understand with this Covid19 going on they are putting a hold on evictions and such but does this allow him to not pay and move out without consequences and leave me in a financial situation? Anyone have experience in this minus the covid19 timing of my situation. From what I’ve been told the tenant should be responsible for the remaining months on lease agreement unless he finds a replacement tenant to fill that void. Is that correct?

[Kyle J.]

You don't mention where you're from so I'll just give you some general advice.  Typically when a tenant breaks a lease and moves out early, a landlord has an obligation to "mitigate their losses" and make a reasonable effort to find another qualified tenant to replace the one that's leaving and re-rent the property.  

You don't have to accept the first applicant that comes along.  You're still allowed to apply your normal screening standards.  That's why I said find another "qualified" tenant.  However, for that same reason, I would not leave it up to the outgoing tenant to find this replacement tenant.  They have no incentive to make sure the new tenant is qualified.  Finding and screening tenants is the landlords job.  Not the tenants.

As for your current tenant breaking the lease and moving out due to his "serious financial situation", in normal times I think people/tenants should honor their commitments (leases).  But these aren't normal times.  People across the country are losing their jobs due to COVID-19, can't pay their bills, and evictions are pretty much being put on hold everywhere.  So be glad that, if he truly can't pay his rent, he's leaving voluntarily.  Because the alternative is that he stays and he doesn't pay his rent and you can't get him out or re-rent the place.  

At least this way you can re-rent it to another tenant who can afford to pay.  It's a temporary setback for you, but it could be a lot worse.  And you should have a security deposit to deduct any lost rent from, so perhaps it won't even be as bad as you think.

Best of luck.