How to reduce the costs of early lease termination

By Tenant

The problem with signing a lease is that it keeps you in one place for a year. And believe it or not, circumstances just push you to break your lease and go. That’s what happened to me. When I didn’t sign a lease (with my old apartment), I stayed there for 7 years – there wasn’t any reason to move for that long. When I finally had to move and sign a lease agreement with another building in another state, I had to break it after just a couple of months. Funny how fate sometimes plays on you.

Well, anyway, my lease says that I have to pay some early lease termination costs equivalent to 2 months of rent. Alright, I can live with that. But it got me thinking, what if a person who had to break the lease didn’t have any money to pay for the termination fees? Then the security deposit would apply, right? In some cases, it would. But there are damages to the property and repairs that need to be done; then the security deposit will not be enough. What can a renter do to reduce the costs of early lease termination?

Here are lists of what to do and what not to do.

Do’s:

• Do inform your landlord about your intention to move. You might need to do a 30-, 60- or 90-day notice, depending on your state. Also, if your reason to move is valid then you probably won’t be asked to pay for any termination costs. An example of a valid reason would be death.
• Do review your lease agreement. Look for the clause on early termination and see how much the fees are. Usually, that would be 2 months’ worth of rent. In some cases, you would be charged for the cost of re-renting the apartment. I personally know of a lease agreement which required 5 months’ worth of rent as penalty. It sounds excessive, right? Well, it’s something that needs to be taken up with a lawyer to see if it’s within legal grounds. Chances are, it’s not.
• Do clean your apartment thoroughly. If you had to leave early, leave with dignity. Clean your apartment and try your best to make it look as nice and presentable as it was when you moved in. Your landlord would appreciate this since they will not need to spend on professional cleaning.
• Do shampoo your carpets. Sometimes, it’s cheaper to hire professional carpet cleaners yourself than to let the landlord do the hiring.
• Do offer to show your apartment to other potential renters. If you can find a replacement tenant then that makes it easier for you to move out and offset the early termination costs. And while you’re showing your apartment to potential renters, spruce it up a little to encourage them.

Don’ts:

• Don’t do something stupid like skipping out in the middle of the night. Your credit score could get seriously affected and remember, it takes years for any negative record to drop off.
• Don’t expect to convince a random person to take over your lease agreement. Chances are, your landlord does not allow subletting so that could be a violation of the lease and you could get evicted. If a landlord is okay with a replacement tenant, then the prospective tenant should go through all the usual steps in securing tenancy.
• Don’t sign another lease agreement with another apartment if you haven’t confirmed your move out date yet. You will be making two landlords extremely unhappy and that’s not an ideal situation to be in.
• Don’t skip the notice. It is VERY important that you give your current landlord enough time to know of your intention to move out.
• Don’t keep the keys to the apartment. You will be charged for locksmith services and that will be taken against your security deposit.
• Don’t forget to take pictures. Always document everything you did to the apartment. The receipt from the professional carpet cleaners should be kept too. As a renter, you need to develop a knack for documentation.

If you followed all the Do’s and you still get a disgruntled landlord who threatens to keep your security deposit, file a complaint. This happens and it’s understandable. He’s losing a tenant so that means he’ll no longer get any rent from you after you move out. However, that does not mean he should keep the deposit. So if this happens, go to RPA’s complaint center and fill out the form found in this link: http://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/complaint_center.php

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