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I live in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. When I first moved into my appartment I paid first and last month's rent ( not a security deposit but Last month rent ). That was two years ago. A family emergency has come up which is forcing me to move out prematurely. My lease ends in May but I am moving out at the end of this month (March). Unfortunately because of the sudden family emergency I could only give my land lord 4 weeks notice (gave her notice in the last week of febuary). My Land lord is now telling me that I cannot use Last Month's rent to cover my last month in March because I was leaving my lease early and that their is a penalty to leaving the lease early. She told me she would "cut me a break" and collect last month's rent as the penalty for breaking the lease instead of actually charging me the fee of breaking the lease ( which she said was about $2100+ depending on how many months early i was from the lease date) plus she said to pay March's rent and "i would be ok". So now she is keeping my last months rent that I have already paid and now wants me to pay March's rent in addition. Does this sound correct? Is this really allowed? Is the lease penalty really that high? It just dosent make sense to me that she is keeping my last month's rent that i paid up front two years ago PLUS making me pay March's rent (which is the last month). Isnt the point of last month's rent to make sure to you are covered for payment for the last month you use your appartment. PLEASE HELP!! I want to make sure this is correct and is true before paying another $1475 (my rent each month) to my land lord.
Check your lease, it should say what the penalty is. But it sounds like you are being charged equal to 2 month's rent, which is a VERY standard lease break penalty. You should still have whatever normal refund of security deposit you would be entitled to, so make sure to clean well when you move.
Does your lease contain an early termination clause which spells out what amount can be paid if you break the lease early? If it doesn't, then the LL is simply offering you an option which seems very fair.
A lease termination fee is usually the equivalent of about two month's rent. Your lease is up in May and whether it's at the end of April or the end of May it boils down to your landlord being out either one or two month's rent (and that's taking into account that you prepaid one month).
A landlord in MA is under no legal duty to mitigate damages by seeking a new tenant so you have no loophole there but are legally responsible to pay rent through the end of the lease.
Thanks everyone for the prompt answers. I'll go and take the offer. Thanks agian everyone
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