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So we rented a place about 6 months ago in the Upper West Side, and we've hated it from day one.
It's just a not-very-good apartment. Extremely paper thin walls, i hear every word and every footstep from my neighbors all day and night. It has awful plumbing, horrible kitchen, no natural light, kind over priced even for manhattan. Shame on us for renting it in the first place
Now i understand the legal obligations of my lease. I understand I could try and find a subletter to take it over, but i dont think i can rent this piece of garbage to someone without feeling terrible about myself as a human being.
My question: Has anyone had success simply asking their management company to let them out of their lease early? What did the penalty look like? We have 5 payments left on it.
So we rented a place about 6 months ago in the Upper West Side, and we've hated it from day one.
It's just a not-very-good apartment. Extremely paper thin walls, i hear every word and every footstep from my neighbors all day and night. It has awful plumbing, horrible kitchen, no natural light, kind over priced even for manhattan. Shame on us for renting it in the first place
Now i understand the legal obligations of my lease. I understand I could try and find a subletter to take it over, but i dont think i can rent this piece of garbage to someone without feeling terrible about myself as a human being.
My question: Has anyone had success simply asking their management company to let them out of their lease early? What did the penalty look like? We have 5 payments left on it.
A management company may allow someone out of their lease early if the apt. is one that would be easy for them to rent out again quickly.
I've broken lease twice but its always been because of some immediate tradgedy. The first time I had to give up my deposit but did not need to pay any extra months rent. The second time we found a new tenant to move in next month and we even got the full deposit back (very lucky).
You'll need to get a new tenant or you will be liable for paying rent up until the lease terminates. You will likely also lose your deposit. If rents are rising in your area and the LL thinks they can get a new tenant paying more than you it helps a lot. If you're in a hot location that can quickly be rerented, that helps too. Also talk to brokers because they will get a new fee for a new tenant so they have every incentive to help.
Breaking lease now in winter will be tough. Its best to do it in the warmer months when the rental market is hot.
@OP - I understand where you are coming from. It all depends if you have one landlord that you deal with or a large management company. Which do you have? Also, I hope you're not dealing with FSR management because they will take you to court. They're just that low class.
Yep. We were in a $6,050/mo 2/2 on the UWS in 2012 with 9 months to go on our lease when we decided to move to California.
I emailed the mgmt company, who had their atty email me immediately. They asked if I was able to get the apt in "show" shape (it already was) and I said sure. Later that afternoon, a couple came by to look at it and said they'd take it. An hour later, the atty emailed me a release from our lease and a request for our forwarding address to send our deposit (which we got back in full).
It was the easiest lease break I could have possibly imagined. Took less than 24 hours and didn't cost me a dime.
Some people don't have it so easy especially when they have legitimate reasons for ending early. Some management companies are just so difficult to work with.
it can be very easy breaking a lease with mgmt. companies because there are legal ploys you can use that usually fly right under the radar of the office help.
my ex wife had to break her lease after we got divorced and it went textbook because the office help are usually clueless when someone uses the laws to legally break the lease.
I posted many times on city data just what that procedure is.
first off this not legal advice , it is based only on our own experience.
i tried to find the link to my old posts but there is just to many to go through.
word of warning . do not do this without a knowledgable attorney doing the wording.
basically new york has an operation of law that puts very heavy weighting on what is called surrender and control in regards to real estate.
so what is usually done is a letter is constructed a few months in advance and sent return receipt to the mgmt office . the letter states that on such and such a date you will be SURRENDERING the keys and give thm a family member address for mailing back your security deposit.
odds are the office will just file that letter as they did in my ex wifes case . they will not respond most of the time to it.
when the day comes to move ,you drop the keys off and odds are once again they will take the keys from you and just accept them back unknowingly.
without even realizing it , in effect under our surrender and control laws they accepted your terms of surrender of the apartment , which can be powerful enought to break a lease , by not responding and saying no you are not or there will be charges if you do or simply not accepting the keys back..
it was sooooo funny when they billed my ex for 6 weeks rent until they re-rented and she wrote them back and told them what they did by not responding.
they laughed at her and said they never heard of such a thing. well they checked with their attorney and yep they blew it.
the other way besides surrender is via what is called control.
what typically happens is the tenant leaves and within a day or two the landlord is fixing and doing in the apartmen getting it ready to rerent.
well once again they unknowingly took control back from you of the apartment.
they can't have it both ways . they can't claim it is your apartment until rerented yet take control of it to rerent.
what they can do is get your written permission to mitigate damages and rerent on your behalf as well as fix and paint.
but what they can't do is go in on their own and do that or you are not responsible for any lost rent from the day they took control.
in my ex wifes case they were in the apartment 2 days later starting to work so in either case she stood a good chance of a judge saying she was out of the lease if it came to that..
i am not an attorney and your milage may differ so do not do this without consulting your own attorney and having them draw up the paperwork.
if they do respond then your only hope is they go in to the apartment and start painting without your permission.
Last edited by mathjak107; 02-02-2015 at 03:46 AM..
I have never had any problems breaking a lease and getting my deposit back. Of course, I have always been an exemplary tenant and have rented in every case for a long time.
A friend of mine was taken to court because he ended his lease early, but he had valid reasons. He relocated to another state for his job.
Management co still took him to court.
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