Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: how to break a year long lease to save my sanity

The common expression 'break' a lease is a little imprecise; it usually means 'breach' but could also carry aspects of 'rescind' or 'get out of without liability' in the mind of a non-lawyer speaker or listener.

It seems to me that what you're asking is what will happen if you breach your lease, whether it is a good idea, and how best to do it.

Are your roommates financially responsible and likely to want to remain there? If so, if you move out and stop paying rent, they will probably continue to make the rent payments. When you don't chip in your share, they have a claim against you which could be enforced in, most likely, a small-claims action. The ex-roommates would have an obligation to mitigate damages by seeking a new roommate. In today's rental market this is usually pretty easy, so your exposure may be slight, and the roommates might not bother to sue you.

Keeping in mind that the full range of possible outcomes is from no exposure at all to a slight chance of responsibility for 100% of the rent, a decision to just move out is perhaps not such a bad option. Much depends on the roommates and the demand for that space.