NC Rental - lease breakage

[Sreeni Guntupalli]

Hello All, 

Any guidance is appreciated on this below matter:

I had a tenant (in Charlotte, NC) who signed a three-year lease in 04/2019 and broke the lease earlier this month as they wanted to move to a different state due to health reasons. He orally told me that he had to move a month before, but only confirmed the date a week before the move out date as he was working with his new employer on the start date. He was a good tenant, took care of the home, and paid on time. So, I wanted to be as reasonable with them. My lease agreement says that he is on the hook for rent until I find another suitable tenant unless we agree on something else. As part of his letter to confirm the move out date, he specifically mentioned that he is waiving rights to part of the security deposit as they are breaking the lease.

My tenant also helped with showing the home to prospective tenants and finally, I approved one of them after the background check and all.

Now, he is coming back and saying that he spoke to a lawyer and I should return the security deposit as I rented the house to a new tenant right away. I did confirm to him after the move-out walk-through everything was good and I am accepting his proposal of using the security deposit as a lease breakage fee.

Please share if you have any suggestions on handling this. I do appreciate your thoughts to help this newbie!

Thank you.

[Sreeni Guntupalli]

Thank you, @Krista Harvey for your prompt response and guidance. I was not aware of this law. Please note that the new tenant is paying lower rent ($45/month) now as I didn't want to keep the property vacant at this time. Also, I sold my new washer/dryer set at a loss of almost $600 as the lease was for three years (when he signed the lease in 04/2019) and he also promised to leave his set at the end of the lease as he wanted to keep his set for their time. Any of this make any difference under NC law? Thank you.