Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Repudiation of lease

Mitigating damages on a commerical lease is not as simple as it is for a residential. In a residential lease, you clean the carpet, slap on some new paint and you can rent to a new tenant in a short period of time. The tenant's demands are a lot simpler and there is usually no negotiating.

With a commercial lease, there is a lot more negotiations with a new tenant. The new tenant might also have different requirements and need to wait for tenant improvements to be completed. Your office might be ready for a new law firm to move in, but what if there are no law firm tenants readily available? If the only tenant available is a dentist, it will take more than 2-3 months to have the unit ready to be rented again.

Depending on how your lease is written, the damages might not be limited to lost rent. The landlord might alsl be entitled the cost of rerenting the unit, including the cost of tenant improvements, before deducting the mitigation recovered through rent. The new rent might also be lower. Your lease probably also has an attorney's fees clause.

Finally, mitigation is an affirmative defense that usually requires expert testimony. It sounds to me like you should rethink the move or perhaps take an active role in finding a new tenant before moving out.