Tenant breaking a lease in NJ

[Margharita Silva]

Hi Everybody,

I own a condo in North Jersey in a high rise and had a good tenant there for a year. Her lease was due for renewal in October and I asked her if she wanted to renew for another year. She said yes and we renewed. The lease started December 1st and on December 18th, she sent me a written 60 days notice to leave without any reason nor discussing it with me prior. I told her i would let her off the lease as per her 60 days notice, but as i am currently out of the country, there is a pandemic, it is the middle of the winter and holidays, it may take me some time to find a replacement tenant and that it would may be longer than 60 days and that she would be responsible for the rent until i find a replacement tenant. I put an ad on a few sites asap but it has been quiet and i still could not find a qualified tenant. Also trying to find a broker. She emailed me yesterday saying she spoke to her attorney and her attorney advised she is within her legal rights to pay February with her deposit and since she is moving out February 18th, she is asking a prorated amount from her deposit back (which she is using as Feb's rent) Venmo'd to her. From what i know she is responsible for the rent until i find a replacement tenant regardless of her 60 days notice and it just sounds ridiculous for her to expect me to pay her a prorated portion of her deposit because she choose to move on the 18th of the month.  Any advice about what to do? by the way i asked her several times why she wants to move but she said she would like to keep it private but i know that she wasn't recruited for the army, had a disability, DV or any other "legal" reason to break the lease. 

[Julie Hartman]

Honestly, given the strict eviction moratorium going on, you should let her go and advertise & show the unit. If she wanted to play hardball with you, she could choose to holdover and not pay rent for the rest of this year if she wanted to and you would be stuck. However, I would not send her deposit back via Venmo. That will leave you without a proper disbursement of the deposit and could open yourself up for legal challenges later. If that doesn't appeal to you, I would consider hiring a property manager to take this over for you to get the property turned over quickly and deal with her. If you are out of the country, you are not in a position to handle this properly and it could come back to bite you later. Good luck!