Why do people act like breaking a lease is a huge deal? (apartments, tenant)
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I have had to break more than a few leases in my time, and I have never had an issue. The solution? Give plenty of notice if you can and offer 2 mos rent. Done and done. I have also been a landlord and had people break my leases. Again, 2 mos rent is the going price in most circumstances.
A lot of the threads I read on here have me scared. People act like its easier to adopt a male infant in China than it is to break a lease. Nowhere have I read so many people being so hard core about the terms of a lease: how you are stuck no matter what until that lease ends. Its like you have signed in your blood and come hell or high water, you had better meet the terms of that document.
Why all this drama around breaking a lease? I am curious to hear from the LLs on here. Have you ever let anyone out of a lease early? What were your terms?
Last edited by whatisthedealwith; 01-23-2014 at 02:48 PM..
I think people just have lives. They get a great job offer cross country 6 mos in to your lease. Are they going to stick around because you threaten them with the terms on a piece of paper? No. Show a little flexibility and they will probably act like an adult and make you an offer for the inconvenience.
Some people are classless and will leave you high and dry, but lets hope you have done a good job of screening them out.
I have had to break more than a few leases in my time, and I have never had an issue. The solution? Give plenty of notice if you can and offer 2 mos rent. Done and done. I have also been a landlord and had people break my leases. Again, 2 mos rent is the going price in most circumstances.
A lot of the threads I read on here have me scared. People act like its easier to adopt a male infant in China than it is to break a lease. Nowhere have I read so many people being so hard core about the terms of a lease: how you are stuck no matter what until that lease ends. Its like you have signed in your blood and come hell or high water, you had better meet the terms of that document.
Why all this drama around breaking a lease? I am curious to hear from the LLs on here. Have you ever let anyone out of a lease early? What were your terms?
For once, there's a post in this forum that I agree with, lol
It's only on these boards that people pretend it's the end of the world if you break a lease.
(Btw, I have- and survived, lol)
Some people take everything way too seriously....
if it's a necessity, it's not the worst thing in the world.
I'm not surprised at all that peoples lives change and from time to time they need to break a lease. That is fine if handled like an adult willing absorb some of the financial consequences for their decisions. From what I read here most of the LL are perfectly willing to work with the tenants to arrange a reasonable exit from the lease. What I read far more often are tenants who are looking for any excuse to duck their responsibilities and looking for an angle so they won't have to pay anything.
There are some parts of the country where landlords do have a hard time finding new tenants (Detroit) or the landlords are underwater on a mortgage for a house they had to leave and lease out, and so are under more financial pressure to charge the tenant for as many months of rent as possible. But those are far more uncommon.
I have had one tenant leave with no notice at the end of the eleventh month, paying nothing for the last month rent and just expected me to take it out of the security deposit, thinking I should be perfectly happy with that. The deposit was not sufficient to cover the last months rent and the damages they had done to the property. Lucky for them I was too busy at the time, with my fill time job, to go after them for the difference in small claims court. I would not hesitate to do that today.
I'm not surprised at all that peoples lives change and from time to time they need to break a lease. That is fine if handled like an adult willing absorb some of the financial consequences for their decisions. From what I read here most of the LL are perfectly willing to work with the tenants to arrange a reasonable exit from the lease. What I read far more often are tenants who are looking for any excuse to duck their responsibilities and looking for an angle so they won't have to pay anything.
There are some parts of the country where landlords do have a hard time finding new tenants (Detroit) or the landlords are underwater on a mortgage for a house they had to leave and lease out, and so are under more financial pressure to charge the tenant for as many months of rent as possible. But those are far more uncommon.
I have had one tenant leave with no notice at the end of the eleventh month, paying nothing for the last month rent and just expected me to take it out of the security deposit, thinking I should be perfectly happy with that. The deposit was not sufficient to cover the last months rent and the damages they had done to the property. Lucky for them I was too busy at the time, with my fill time job, to go after them for the difference in small claims court. I would not hesitate to do that today.
I don't know if we are on the same forum.
There is another thread where the poor tenant hasn't even occupied the place and needs to break the lease. The LL is keeping the deposit and many are saying "that is what you agreed to! Sounds legal to me!" when it isn't. There are tons of other threads where tenants have a legit concern or need to get out of a lease, and LLs are trying to convince them that the world will end if they leave.
If you live in an area where its hard to keep a place rented, I understand a little more some of the desperation. But I see just as much greed on the side of the LLs as I seek flakiness on the side of the tenants. At least on this forum.
I don't know if we are on the same forum. I have been participating on this forum a lot longer than you.
There is another thread where the poor tenant hasn't even occupied the place and needs to break the lease. The LL is keeping the deposit and many are saying "that is what you agreed to! Sounds legal to me!" when it isn't.
"when it isn't. " is your opinion, not factual. It is not uncommon at all for that type of lease break fee to be equal to two months rent, which is what you recommended in your first post in this thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whatisthedealwith
I have had to break more than a few leases in my time, and I have never had an issue. The solution? Give plenty of notice if you can and offer 2 mos rent. Done and done.
There are tons of other threads where tenants have a legit concern or need to get out of a lease, and LLs are trying to convince them that the world will end if they leave.
That is a huge exaggeration, show me one where anyone said "the world will end if they leave"
If you live in an area where its hard to keep a place rented, I understand a little more some of the desperation. But I see just as much greed on the side of the LLs as I seek flakiness on the side of the tenants. At least on this forum.
Again, what I have read is that most of the landlords who participate regularly in this forum recommend that tenants make reasonable lease break offers if they are not already addressed in the lease.
I have had to break more than a few leases in my time, and I have never had an issue. The solution? Give plenty of notice if you can and offer 2 mos rent. Done and done. I have also been a landlord and had people break my leases. Again, 2 mos rent is the going price in most circumstances.
A lot of the threads I read on here have me scared. People act like its easier to adopt a male infant in China than it is to break a lease. Nowhere have I read so many people being so hard core about the terms of a lease: how you are stuck no matter what until that lease ends. Its like you have signed in your blood and come hell or high water, you had better meet the terms of that document.
Why all this drama around breaking a lease? I am curious to hear from the LLs on here. Have you ever let anyone out of a lease early? What were your terms?
I've let people out of their leases. . If they want to leave then leave. Last thing I want is someone who doesn't want to stay on my property staying on my property. Give me proper notice and don't trash the place when you live there or leave. I don't freak. I know I'm dealing with people and lives change. I do have a penalty clause of one month rent if they break the lease. I had two classless tenants. One that basically demanded as CarlitosBala stated ( I upheld the lease clauses ) and another who was such chickenpoop that he made his roommate tell me he was leaving. All on one day notice. Even then I didn't freak out. The roommate had a tenant and the months rent next day and the first guy? Well it took me a whole two weeks to fill the vacancy. And that was because the girl who moved in asked for the place to be painted. It was actually rented in about 4 days. If you treat me fair I'll be fair with you.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 01-23-2014 at 07:42 PM..
here in Brooklyn NY apartments are never vacant long, ever.......................our LL lets people move whenever, then he repaints, does the floors and before you know it, the tenant is already hanging curtains.....
but I too agree with the first poster, breaking a lease is not the end of the world, the world will not fall apart, you will not go to jail, you will not go to hell......wah wah wah
There is nothing wrong or bad with breaking a lease if you do it right, have the landlord on board, and everything end well
BUT, read all the post from people with problems because they didn’t break the lease the right way and to them, yes the world is ending when you can’t rent a place.
Many of the post warning people about breaking a lease are for those who are about to do it the wrong way. Maybe some of the hard handed comments will get them to step back and realize they have to play by the rules or work with the landlord on a new set of rules. Just doing it the way they want is what may get them in trouble.
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