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I currently live in Austin, TX, and had to break my lease due to a job transfer; I will be moving to the Bay Area in 3 weeks. I live in a very popular location, so I know there are lot of people who want to live in my residency. My rent is $930 a month w/o utilities, and I signed for a 6-mo lease starting 4/30 and ending 10/30.
I notified my apartment complex a full 3 weeks in advance of needing to move out by end of this month, 6/30; they told me that
(1) I would have to pay a reletting fee of 85% of 1 month's rent
(2) pay for the remaining rent until a new tenant can be found.
However, they assured me they would try their very best to find a tenant to replace me, and that they have a waitlist of people wanting to move into the apartment.
Three days later (today), I call to check on the status of my reletting and see if they found anyone. They said yes, they have found someone to move in, but on July 11th. I asked if they could try to find someone to live in my apartment closer to my move-out date (June 30th), since that would mean I would have to pay 11 days of rent on top of my reletting fee, but they said unfortunately they couldn't, and that was the risk with reletting the apartment.
Although I'm happy they were able to find someone, I wasn't too happy that the apartment didn't look longer (there's still 3 weeks!) to find a resident that could move in closer to my move-out date. My question is:
Is this fair, and am I being unreasonable? Or, should I argue and see if they could spend more time trying to find another resident? Again, this was literally 3 days after I notified them, and my move-out isn't for another 3 full weeks.
My total for breaking my lease would be:
Reletting fee of 85% total rent ($930 * 85% = $790.50) + 11 days rent (11/30 * $930 = $341) = $1131.50
....................
* P.S. Apartment does not allow subletting, nor would I consider. I do not want to be liable for any damages if I am on a lease, but not in the apartment.
Last edited by mario_star64; 06-13-2016 at 03:22 PM..
You are being unreasonable. They don't have to play by your rules when you break a lease. Is that reletting fee in your lease? If it isn't then tell they they can go pound sand because it won't hold up in court.
I imagine you are an a TAA lease, so yes, the reletting fee is in the lease. You want them to turn down a tenant in the off chance they may find someone to move in sooner to help you not pay as much to break your contract? You are being unreasonable. A qualified applicant in the hand, is way better than two maybe applicants. What if the next one who wants your apartment doesn't want to move until July 15th?
Pay the fees and be happy the apartment is leased. $1131.50 to break your contract is a good deal
If they wait longer to see if they can get someone in sooner, they will almost certainly lose the guy for July 11th, as he will need to know fairly soon (most people have to give 30 days notice to their current housing). So if they wait, most people would need 30 days from that point, which would move things out further and further for you. 11 days of downtime is REALLY good for a lease break. Just for the normal turnover between tenants, many places take a full week.
So I agree, be grateful for what sounds like a great deal for you.
Also, many places charge a larger penalty than that. My lease says 2 months' rent as the penalty. Plus we require 45 day notice on top of that, unless we are lucky enough to find someone before the 45 days is up, and the 45 days notice is always through the end of the appropriate calendar month. So you only gave 3 weeks notice. If you gave me notice last week, it would be for move out at the end of July. They've found someone for literally 30 days from the date you gave notice. That's pretty darn good.
As a renter who has broken a lease before, I'd say this is incredibly fair. You're lucky that's all you have to pay and that they worked to get someone in as quickly as they did.
They may need the extra time for cleaning and painting anyway. Sounds reasonable to me.
^^^^^^^^^^ see above^^^^^^^^
They need a certain amount of time to check & clean in between tenants.
If they schedule someone to move in the day after you leave & find any problems with the unit, they could be financially liable to that other tenant for damages (and make them mad)..
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