Breaking a Lease in Colorado

[Josh Walker]

A friend of mine recently (2 months ago) changed jobs which required him to move from Colorado to Oklahoma.  He was leasing a house in CO and the lease extends through May 2021.  He realizes that he's generally on the hook for the lease payments until the landlord rents his house to a new tenant.  However, there seem to be a few extenuating circumstances.  

- Via the leasing agent, my friend was told that there have been qualified renters that the landlord has turned down.  This was verbal. This would go against the landlord making a good faith effort to rent his house, but my friend does not have this in writing. 

- The AC went out shortly after (maybe right before) they moved out and the landlord has refused to fix it which has led to showings of the house at 90 degrees.  From what I have researched, if he has notified the landlord in writing and this went unfixed for 5 days he may be in the clear.  Can anyone add some clarity to this?

- Does anyone have any additional thoughts/insight that may be beneficial to my friend in this situation?

Thanks for your help BP!