What do you charge to break a lease?

[Tony Castronovo]

What terms/fees do you usually impose on a tenant who wants to terminate a lease agreement early?  The penalty for early termination in my lease agreement is forfeiture of security deposit and one month's rent.  It doesn't seem like much of a penalty in hindsight.  I tried to see if there was guidance in the Texas Property Code but didn't see anything relevant to this situation.

[Bart H.]

Originally posted by @Tony Castronovo:

What terms/fees do you usually impose on a tenant who wants to terminate a lease agreement early?  The penalty for early termination in my lease agreement is forfeiture of security deposit and one month's rent.  It doesn't seem like much of a penalty in hindsight.  I tried to see if there was guidance in the Texas Property Code but didn't see anything relevant to this situation.

 Do you not use the standard Realtor lease?

the tenant should lose the damage deposit and then is also on the hook for the lease until an acceptable tenant is found by the landlord.

I have settled a couple of times in the past, for less (once when we decided to sell a property, and a second time when we had a tenant I thought was out of money and about to hit issues financially.  

I actually have a tenant now who is buying a house and we are trying to find a new tenant.  IF we are successful and we end up not having any vacancies, and they leave the place clean and in good condition, we MIGHT return some (or all of the damage deposit), but this tenant already fulfilled one lease (and extended to a second year) and is being helpful to us getting a new tenant.