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Hey guys. Long and short, wife and I were expecting our 3rd child and wanted to move into a larger place before the termination of the lease. We notified our landlord and said we would continue paying rent on time until he was able to get a new tenant. We moved out, did a walk through, and turned in ONE key (kept the other to check mail once a week for items not forwarded to new address).
They find a new tenant and say they're moving in the last month of our lease term, on the 15th. I inquire about our deposit and he says we broke lease and in the lease we agreed if we broke we would lose our deposit. I disagreed and stated that we didn't break lease as we continued making payments. I go by the place the next day to get a toddler bed we had left in the attic and a new tenant has already moved in, exactly midway through the last month we paid rent, so now I'm assuming when the new lease was signed with the new tenant, our lease was severed and he now owes the deposit as well as half a month rent for the overlapping periods. Even if we did breach, doesn't TN 66-28-508 say his acceptance of full payments on time condone the breach and he waives claim to terminate lease? We never received ANY formal or informal communication as to the lease being terminated at any point. Also never received a deduction listing stating why our deposit was being withheld.
Leaving the apartment before the lease ends is technically breaking it. If you still had stuff at the apartment then you didn't move out and you shouldn't have given they key over, that's giving the property back to the owner. If you planned on making it a slow move you should have said that. The landlord is wrong as well, he double dipped, he accepted your months rent and had someone move in and is taking their money. That's a BIG no no. Depending on your state, you can sue for the money back, plus triple damages.
Next time though, don't surrender the premises if you haven't actually moved out.
66-28-508. Waiver of landlord's right to terminate.
If the landlord accepts rent without reservation and with knowledge of a tenant default, the landlord by such acceptance condones the default and thereby waives such landlord's right and is estopped from terminating the rental agreement as to that breach.
That law is for stopping evictions, for any reason seemingly, by paying rent. Let's say that you had an additional person move in and the LL gave you a cure or quit notice. Under that law if after you received the notice and before you cured the breach you then paid rent. That law says your LL accepts the additional occupant by also accepting rent. Doesn't help you here since your breach is early termination of the lease.
Your lease is not ended by a new lease beginning. One example is it the LL had to take a lower monthly rent to replace you then you owe the difference until the end of your lease. If the only way to get a new tenant was to offer them first month free so the new tenant isn't paying anything for the month then you owe your full rent. That is all highly unlikely though just an example; the LL is probably double dipping and owes you a refund for the daily rate for every day the new tenant is living there.
Your biggest mistake is you didn't surrender possession. Until the keys are fully returned you have legal possession and that messes with a number of things including security deposit return timelines. Because you have possession but likely gave permission for the LL to find a replacement tenant he isn't in the wrong by placing a new tenant though so don't confuse things.
As of right now your LL doesn't seem to have done anything wrong, he will owe you a refund for daily rent for the new tenants period. If the lease states you forfeit your security deposit by terminating early then you forfeited it. I doubt he has to give you a deduction breakdown since it is a single item, your early termination, but if you push it he could just send you a notice then about it. TN 66-28-301(g) state that he can always claim contractual damages.
Best bet at this point is to go after the rent refund since you have no claim to the rest.
You did break your lease if you moved before the end date on your lease, and told them to go ahead and place a new tenant, pure and simple. That means you owe rent until the end date of your lease or until they find a new tenant, whichever comes first. But that doesn't mean that you don't also owe lease break penalties. Apparently your lease says that you forfeit your deposit. That's really light. Equivalent to 2 month's rent is pretty standard, and I've seen 2 months plus forfeiting your deposit.
Your other option was to keep paying rent through the end of your lease, in which case, there would be no penalty. It sounds like that would have been more money in this case, so your landlord did his job correctly by mitigating your loss and finding a new tenant.
In my opinion, if you returned a key and didn't expressly tell the landlord that you kept one and weren't done yet, you returned possession. If I get some keys back from a tenant who has told me they are moving out, I consider that to be return of possession and I go in that day to start cleaning and repairs. If I only get some of the keys back, I don't assume the tenant kept one so they could go back and get mail. I assume the tenant is irresponsible and either lost the rest or just forgot they had them, which is usually the case. I change the locks and move on.
However, in a lease break scenario, I don't start the 30 day security deposit refund/notice clock ticking until the day I move someone else in, because that is the day when the prior tenant's responsibility ends. So if your state allows 30 days to send the notice, and they moved someone in 30 days ago, they may be sending the notice today and you wouldn't have received it yet.
Also, you said you didn't receive anything stating that the lease was being terminated. I'm confused by that statement. YOU informed THEM that you were terminating the lease. Then THEY informed YOU that they had found a replacement tenant. That sounds like pretty clear communication about the lease being terminated. If you didn't understand what you were doing, that isn't the landlord's fault.
The only thing I see that is in question here is the overlap rent. They may owe you a refund for those 2 weeks you paid for that someone else moved in. But you may owe them some money for cleaning and repairs if any were needed. They really should send you an itemized statement.
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