ending lease agreement early, what to do?!

[Misa Matic]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Misha, I'm living in sunny Sunnyvale California, with my wife. I'm hoping to get some advice on what are options are in breaking our lease.

We have been living here since September 2020, and we signed a lease agreement with an apartment complex for the duration of 13 months. We moved here for a job opportunity my wife recieved, she signed job contract for a year. Meanwhile we were fortunate enough to get pregnant since we moved here. After we found out about the pregnancy and the due date, we knew she wont be extending her job contract, and we agreed that she will be giving birth in a birthing center in Washington, so we will be ending the rental sgreement three months early.

I let my Apartment management company know in January (5 months before our departure), that we will be leaving earlier and the reasons.

They gave us 2 options,
a) to keep paying the lease until they or we find a tenant
b) to pay 2 months of rent in advance (over 5k) after we leave to be able to end the contract sooner

I guess we accepted the cheaper option, or at least we hope it is cheaper, a) so far no luck with renting out the apartment, but we still have a 2 months to go.

My question is, as I would much rather have that money for the coming months after the baby is born. If we leave, and end up not paying their additional requests for ending the lease agreement, what is the most likely outcome than can happen? and any other advice?


Thank you for your time and knowledge.

[Jon Schwartz]

Originally posted by @Misa Matic:

Hello Everyone!

My name is Misha, I'm living in sunny Sunnyvale California, with my wife. I'm hoping to get some advice on what are options are in breaking our lease.

We have been living here since September 2020, and we signed a lease agreement with an apartment complex for the duration of 13 months. We moved here for a job opportunity my wife recieved, she signed job contract for a year. Meanwhile we were fortunate enough to get pregnant since we moved here. After we found out about the pregnancy and the due date, we knew she wont be extending her job contract, and we agreed that she will be giving birth in a birthing center in Washington, so we will be ending the rental sgreement three months early.

I let my Apartment management company know in January (5 months before our departure), that we will be leaving earlier and the reasons.

They gave us 2 options,
a) to keep paying the lease until they or we find a tenant
b) to pay 2 months of rent in advance (over 5k) after we leave to be able to end the contract sooner

I guess we accepted the cheaper option, or at least we hope it is cheaper, a) so far no luck with renting out the apartment, but we still have a 2 months to go.

My question is, as I would much rather have that money for the coming months after the baby is born. If we leave, and end up not paying their additional requests for ending the lease agreement, what is the most likely outcome than can happen? and any other advice?


Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 Misa,

Don't worry, property management can't and won't evict you. Don't take advice from people not in California.

Under the law, you're obligated to pay rent through the duration of your lease or until the unit can be reasonably re-tenanted. Your property management can tell you that you'll have to pay the lease until they find a replacement, but they have an obligation to find a replacement. You should ask them how long units have been vacant this past year between tenants. If it's usually 2-3 weeks, then it'd be unreasonable for them to charge more than 2 months' rent while looking for a new tenant.

I'm not surprised you haven't found a replacement yet. Most apartment-hunters don't start hunting until a month out.

You should download the read the relevant sections of this book:

https://store.nolo.com/product...

This will equip you with what you need to know so that you can respond to property management -- in writing! -- letting them know that you will pay rent until a new tenant is found in accordance with reasonable expectation.

Best,

Jon