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I'm looking to break my lease in PA, and am fully willing to accept a penalty and even lose my security deposit, but I'm curious about this portion of my lease:
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"Tenant may end this Lease and move out of the Property before the End Date of the Lease or any Renewal Term only with written permission of Landlord, and only if:
(A) Tenant gives Landlord at least 90 days written notice, AND
(B) Tenant pays Landlord a Termination Fee of $1950, AND
(C) Tenant continues to pay all rent until the End Date of the Lease, or any Renewal Term, or until a new tenant is approved by Landlord and a new lease takes effect, whichever happens first."
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So my question is: if the lease states that I must pay my rent until the end date of the lease, why on earth would I also have to pay a termination fee? Wouldn't I essentially NOT be ending the lease if I was paying until the end of the lease anyway?
Well, no, I don't believe so anyway. It's the same amount as the security deposit though, as well as one months rent. But it states nowhere in this section that the penalty is THE security deposit.
I can understand your confusion as this is very poorly written. I'd suggest you have an attorney look it over - or if this isn't financially possible, contact your local Legal Aid office for assistance. Good luck!
You either give 90 days notice OR give a early termination fee OR pay rent until end of lease/until a new renter is found.
It is common to pay Early Termination Fees. But you pay this and you are done. At that point you don't pay monthly rent until a new tenant is found. It's one or the other.
There is no rule that says you lose security deposit. The deposit is used for any damages which are physical damage or any rents or other monies that you owe.
I'm looking to break my lease in PA, and am fully willing to accept a penalty and even lose my security deposit, but I'm curious about this portion of my lease:
---
"Tenant may end this Lease and move out of the Property before the End Date of the Lease or any Renewal Term only with written permission of Landlord, and only if:
(A) Tenant gives Landlord at least 90 days written notice, AND
(B) Tenant pays Landlord a Termination Fee of $1950, AND
(C) Tenant continues to pay all rent until the End Date of the Lease, or any Renewal Term, or until a new tenant is approved by Landlord and a new lease takes effect, whichever happens first."
ASSUMING that provision of the lease is legal in your state (which of course you need to check on first), the way that's worded, especially (c), if the LL gets a new tenant in quickly, you would be paying the termination fee and only a little bit of the rent on what's left of your lease -- only the rent for the time between your move-out and the new tenant's move-in. I don't know what the law is in Pennsylvania, but I assume you would have to rely on the LL to do everything in his power to search for and obtain a new tenant, and he doesn't have much incentive to do so the way that lease is written.
Your best option really depends on how far away from the lease end you are. You didn't say when it ends. If it's coming up to 90 days, you could just bite the bullet, move out, but still pay rent for those 90 days (to the end of the lease), MAKING SURE you give the 30 days' notice (or whatever is required by the lease) -- that might be easy to forget once you're no longer living there!! Otherwise, you could give them 90 days' notice, pay the $1,950 termination fee, and hope they get someone in there fast so you no longer have to pay rent to the end of your lease.
So financially, which of the above option is better depends on how much your rent is AND how fast they could (and would) get a new tenant in there (assuming that provision is legal in your state, which of course you should check on first!).
Because you are breaking a contract hey can charge as much as the law will allow. It's not like they are hiding the fees. You signed the lease knowing full well what the early termination fines were. Unless you didn't read the lease.
In any case, check with your state to see if there are any laws regarding having to move early. I can't remeber what state is was but if you were moving for work more than a certain amount of miles away, the LL had to let you out of the lease with a penalty of no more than 1-2 months rent. Maybe your reason to move falls under some special circumstances?
I can't remeber what state is was but if you were moving for work more than a certain amount of miles away, the LL had to let you out of the lease with a penalty of no more than 1-2 months rent. Maybe your reason to move falls under some special circumstances?
I don't believe that's a stipulation of any state landlord tenant laws and is a federally mandated situation where a military transfer is involved. PA state landlord tenant laws are probably linked in the first "sticky" on this forum and, if not, can easily be found by googling, "PA landlord tenant laws".
What still doesn't make sense to me is this: it I was to pay for the remainder of the lease (4 months), why would I also pay a penalty? In that case couldn't I just NOT break the lease and move out (after all is that much different than someone who rents and takes an extremely long vacation leaving the place empty?)?
What still doesn't make sense to me is this: it I was to pay for the remainder of the lease (4 months), why would I also pay a penalty? In that case couldn't I just NOT break the lease and move out (after all is that much different than someone who rents and takes an extremely long vacation leaving the place empty?)?
How many months do you have left?
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