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Within 24 hours of signing the lease, and several days before the lease commence, we told the landlord that we intend to break the lease and not moving in. We never take possession of the property. Would the landlord be able to hold us responsible for the rent of the rest of the lease term (9 month lease)? We are in Nevada.
Sure he will, you signed a contract and probably already put down your deposit and paid the first month's rent. There's a fix for everything but you're probably on the hook at least until he re-rents the unit.
Some states give a certain amount of time to back out of contracts.
If that were the case here, the OP would already know it because it would be clearly stated in the lease contract. the 3 day rescission law applies to loan contracts, contractor contracts, timeshare purchases, car loans but not leases I don't think.
You'll be responsible for any penalties in the lease if there is an "early termination" clause. If not, you'll be responsible for rent until the landlord re-rents the unit (assuming he makes a good-faith effort to find new renters). You may also be responsible for resonable advertizing costs the landlord must pay to find new renters.
Don't assume you'll get out of this without paying anything, though. The lease you signed is a legally binding contract. If it takes your landlord 2 months to re-rent the unit, you'll probably owe him 2 months rent.
If they didn't rent it for 9 months you would be liable, but I'm pretty sure most, if not all states, do not allow a landlord to collect double rent. And landlords have to make a reasonable effort to re-rent the unit.
My friend's currently in a dispute with a former leasing office of the complex we all used to live in. We lived in different apartments and were neighbors. She unfortunately lost her job so couldn't pay for the place anymore. She gave notice and moved out early. They sent her a bill for NINE GRAND even though the unit was occupied 10 days later. She refused to pay knowing the unit was already rented. I think the bill was reduced to 3 grand, but again she refused to pay that as well. 10 days of rent was $300, even for "advertising" which they really never needed to do because they have a huge complex and are on all the for rent type sites, I couldn't see her paying more than $500ish, not 9 grand!
We've consulted a lawyer and clearly the law is not on our side. The landlord lives out of state so he doesn't really make any effort to re-rent so far. He even threatened that he is going to collect all 9 months rent even if we never move in. We thought about different scenarios:
1) The 2nd month if we default on the rent, he is likely going to start legal eviction process, we are not able to occupy the place for the rest of the lease term, and at the same time, liable for whole 9 months' rent. He can also collect all legal costs on us, since we have fine jobs, he can surely get all the money from us. This is not the way we want since he is doing nothing but merely collects rent.
2) The 2nd month if he does not agree we terminate the lease, we pay rent on time, we start move in. He does not have any legal grounds to deny us moving in. Then we will have to claim all our tenants rights. So many small things to fix. We expect the apt to be in perfect living condition, the faucet could be broken, toileting is leaking, air conditioning leaking, heating does not work. It could even have bugs, mold, all these little or not little things. If not too serious, we could have lived with and minimize his cost previously, like we do with our previous landlords, now we are expecting him to fix everything on time legally. And these common nuisances, could happen constantly, and probably will, and we will not hesitate in a bit demanding him to fix it on the legal time limit, to the legal perfection point. In the end, he would know it is not a good idea to force unhappy people live there.
Not sure if #2 will work, but we are willing to try it if he is unreasonable.
We are pretty sure that he is hoping us to default on 2nd month rent so that he can claim all the legal grounds on his side.
Have you read your lease yet? What does it say about early termination? You never did say the reason you didn't want to move in..........
He's not the one being unreasonable, YOU ARE!...you signed a legal, binding contract and now what to back out of it.
He's not going to deny you moving in, he's expecting you to move in! As for repairs, when you do a walk thru upon move in, you make a list of things that need to be done and he'll get them done. Judas Priest...just move in already and honor your contract
Last edited by Kim in FL; 06-02-2013 at 04:17 AM..
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