Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

You are told wrong. If you are on a month-to-month rental agreement, either party can terminate the rental with 30 days notice (although the landlord must give 60 days once the agreement has been in place a year or more). That is not true of a lease for a specific term, typically six months or a year. You can only get out of those on the date they end. If you must break a lease, you are responsible for rent through the end of the term OR until the landlord gets a new tenant paying rent, which ever is sooner, BUT the landlord must take all commercially reasonable steps to find a new tenant as soon as possible. The landlord cannot just blow you off and expect to collect rents through the end of the lease. So it's best for you and the landlord to work together to minimize any vacancy time if you must move out before a lease ends.