What can they really charge us?

By Megan

My husband and I are purchasing our first home soon.  When we went to the leasing office to see what we needed to do to break our lease, we were told the same thing by 3 people: 60 notice with 2 months rent, and we would lose our security deposit.  We handed in our notice on May 1, and went over May 3 to make sure they had received it.  Our apartment manager told us we also had to pay a lease termination fee equal to 2 months rent.  It’s all in our lease, but it’s incredibly hard to understand!  The lease states the same thing I was told in the office, but then has addendums later that change everything. And now they’re telling us we have to pay back a $1200 concession we were given on our rent because we are terminating early. My first question:

What are they really allowed to charge us for breaking our lease early in the state of PA?  All together they are trying to collect almost $7900 to break our lease to buy a new house!

My second question:  They are keeping our security deposit, but not because of damages.  Our security deposit was around $1650.  Are they allowed to do this?  I also read in PA state law that at the start of our second year of a lease, they have to give back any of the security deposit that is more than 1 month’s rent.

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