Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Landlord/tenant

Is it worth the family bitterness to fight this? You want your brother-in-law to bear all the burdens of the lease with your getting the benefits. Put yourself in his shoes; would you not feel that a co-tenant should either take over the entire lease or share the economic cost of breaking it?

Yes, he could sue in Samll Claims Court and has a decent chance of winning. Your defense would be a technical defense that you are not on the lease so are not bound by its terms, he should have given you more advanced warning and should not have entered into a leae for such a long term when he knew he was looking to buy a house and might have to break the lease.