All Forum Posts by: Drew Brower

Hi everyone, I have recently been renting out my first house for the past year and a half. The tenants have been great and we have maintained good communication if anything needs fixed or addressed. However, they have approached me last week about the option of breaking out of their lease, which has another 5 months to go, in order to buy a house. Upon reviewing the lease, I don't have any sort of penalty for breaking the lease early other than they are responsible for continuing to pay rent until the house is rented out by someone else, which they are happy to do. This home has been below market rent and I figured I could use this as an opportunity to increase rent to similar homes in the area. Some have suggested that in the future, tenants who want to break the lease early will forfeit their security deposit. However I am concerned about that option as if tenants know they will not be receiving their deposit back, they have no reason to care what condition the property is in when they leave. I'm curious to know what solutions some of you use when coming across this situation. Thanks