terminating rental agreement early due to home purchase (Tempe: apartment, credit report)

[foma]

Thanks finger laker - the best route to go I think is, like you said, negotiate in advance. Hopefully it'll still be a buyer's market next summer and I can work something out on the home purchase end. I'll be crossing my fingers not to fall in love with a house before my lease is up or else I'll be paying rent and a mortgage!

[sfw1979]

""""Hopefully it'll still be a buyer's market next summer""""

It still should be so you should have no prb finding a homw you love! This is the BEST website ever for homes : ZipRealty Real Estate -- Homes for sale and local real estate agents

Good lucK!

[Greatday]

Originally Posted by foma

In New York, if you bought a house and needed to terminate your rental lease early because of the home purchase, you would be able to without penalty. Does AZ have a similar law?

No. A lease is a contract. One cannot unilaterally terminate a contract without the expectation of damages.

[Greatday]

Originally Posted by foma

Purchasing a home, I believe, is a legitimate reason to break a lease.

Sorry to disappoint you but, it is not a legitimate reason to terminate a lease in the State of Arizona

[aj661]

Originally Posted by foma

Thanks finger laker - the best route to go I think is, like you said, negotiate in advance. Hopefully it'll still be a buyer's market next summer and I can work something out on the home purchase end. I'll be crossing my fingers not to fall in love with a house before my lease is up or else I'll be paying rent and a mortgage!

If you have a good landlord that shouldn't be a problem. We were faced with that 8 years ago when we sold our home in Gilbert. Our next house wasn't going to be ready for six to eight months. We found a great property management co. that had the perfect rental for us (wish we could have bought it instead of our current home!). She wrote in on the standard agreement that we could go month to month after the initial six month lease. Worked out great for us.

[foma]

Our leasing co has been pretty good to us. Our situation is that the landlord doesn't want to go with the leasing co anymore now that our lease is up. She wants to deal directly with us. We've been perfect tenants perhaps? Anyway, I did email her and told her of our situation. Hopefully she doesn't take it the wrong way as, I believe, some folks here have. Maybe I asked it "the wrong way" so with her, I approached it more in terms of "Hey, what are the fees/penalties and this is the only reason why it would happen but you'll get plenty of advance warning." I appreciate everybody's advice.

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by sfw1979

This is the BEST website ever for homes : ZipRealty Real Estate -- Homes for sale and local real estate agents

That site does not cover the Prescott area, so it certainly cannot be the BEST website. Try sticking to Realtor.com or Homes.com.

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by foma

All I was asking is if there are laws protecting citizens from having to pay outrageous fees. My rental contract protects my landlord from just about everything and does little for us. The contract doesn't say anything about what happens if circumstance arises that you need to break a lease so I thought I'd come here and ask. That was my my mistake. I will ask the landlord directly what the 'consequences' are. I didn't think I'd be judged and branded as irresponsible. It would be much more effective to advise that one can work with the builder/lenders on when to start payment and such, if that's even an option. I've never owned a home so i wouldn't know. It's not effective to admonish someone because of his/her question. A simple yes/no would suffice.

You definitely have to protect yourself in the lease. That's why it's negotiable on both sides. You can have virtually anything written in it IF the landlord agrees to it.

The penalty should only be that you pay for whatever months you are supposed to. We did that when we bought a house about 2 months early. We had to pay both mortgage and the house we were leasing. That was our choice that we made when we looked for a house a little too early.

[foma]

Originally Posted by sablebaby

You definitely have to protect yourself in the lease. That's why it's negotiable on both sides. You can have virtually anything written in it IF the landlord agrees to it.

The penalty should only be that you pay for whatever months you are supposed to. We did that when we bought a house about 2 months early. We had to pay both mortgage and the house we were leasing. That was our choice that we made when we looked for a house a little too early.

I already spoke to the landlord and she's adding to the lease that I can terminate the lease a month early given' 45 day advance notice. She was totally cool about it and both sides believe the terms to be fair. She's also keeping the rent amount the same if we go month-to-month.

another option she gave us was we would be "acting agents" if we terminate early. I don't know how that would work but I'll have to look into it. Sounds like we'd help her find a renter or something.

[AzDreamer]

Congratulations, it looks like you worked out an agreement that both parties feel is fair.