Tenant wants out of lease early!

[Remone R.]

One of our tenants wants out of their lease in a couple months and they've stated their buying a new home. Crazy because they just signed a year lease the start of July. We're not totally opposed to letting them out as we could do some updates to the unit and get more rent. Only question is do we just make them pay half of the remaining lease and forfeit their deposit Or just charge them for the time to re-rent ie. repairs, lost rent, advertising etc. We know can't charge them for the rest of the lease term if they vacate without attempting to re-rent the unit, but we don't want to put ourselves in a bind during covid and eviction moratoriums. Any suggestions?

[Kenneth Garrett]

@Remone R.

In your lease make sure you have an early out of the lease.  In my area 2.5 times the rent fee is the norm.  So if rent was $1000 it would cost $2500 to end the lease early.  This buys you time to do repairs and find a new tenant.  It should be in your lease.