Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I rent office space and need to close my bussiness due to my business partners terminal illness. I was verbally told by the property manager who is the wife of the landlord that, her husband said that I can get out of my lease. I made arrangements and gave a 30 day notice. The landlord said to me that his wife shouldn't have said that and that I am still responsible for the lease. Is this considered a verbal agreement broken? Am I still responsible for the lease?


Asked on 10/03/09, 5:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You have a pretty messy situation there as far as whether you have an enforcible agreement to terminate the lease without penalty. You can always move out and not pay any more rent, and see if they really want to fight it, and if so you can raise that defense and see what happens. It's never possible to predict the outcome of a trial that will hinge on he-said/she-said.

Assuming for the sake of argument that you don't have an enforceable early termination agreement, what happens if you stop paying rent and move out anyway, is that the owner is under an obligation to take the commercially reasonable steps to re-rent the property as quickly and at as much rent as the market will allow. You are then responsible for the rent until the owner moves in a new tenant, or the lease ends, which ever comes first.

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Answered on 10/04/09, 3:38 am


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