Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Can I break a lease agreement if there isn't a stated penalty to break the lease early? The landlord said in January they wanted to sell the house we are renting. Were going to buy the house but our lease wasn't up until September 1st. We started to get ready to qualify for a home loan but then the owners real estate agent said we couldn't do a specific loan to get repairs done to the roof and rotting trim of the house. We decided to look for another home and are now purchasing a different home. Now the landlord is mad that we are moving out early even though they said in January they wanted to sell the house and asked if we were interested and how soon we a could purchase it. They were trying to sell before our lease agreement was up and now they want to continue to collect rent from us even though they were originally pushing to break our lease agreement. Can we move out without being responsible to pay rent for the remainder of the lease.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Yes and no. Unless the lease has actual early termination provisions that you follow, or you and the landlord reach an actual agreement to terminate the lease early without payment, you are breaching a contract if you move out early. That does not mean, however, that the landlord can then just sit back and collect the rent from you until the end of the lease. When a tenant breaches the lease contract by moving out early, the tenant is liable for the rent (plus any costs, expenses or losses due to the vacancy) until the landlord can replace the tenant or the lease ends, whichever comes first. HOWEVER, that means the landlord must take all commercially reasonable steps to re-rent the property. If the landlord decides not to find a new tenant and to sell it vacant instead, or fails to try with reasonable efforts to find a new tenant, then they cannot collect the unpaid rent.
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