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.