Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Breaking Lease Early - Paying until apartment is rented
My girlfriend and I have been renting in the same complex for 3 years. We moved into a two bedroom about 1 year ago and we signed a new lease at that time. There is about 4 months left on our new lease and we have found a house we want to move into. All the paperwork is signes and the move in date is around the first of December. When I informed the management that we wanted to break the lease early, they informed us that there is a 250 dollar find (which I have no problem with paying) and we must continue to pay for the apartment until it is rented. There are currently 9 apartments in front of us that must be rented before ours can be, and there is no way that we can afford to make the mortgage payment and also continue to pay for the apartment. I went and talked to the manager to see if an agreement can be made and the only thing that he told us was the earlier we move out, the longer we have to pay for the apartment before our first payment on the mortgage is due. Is there some law that says how long you must keep paying for an apartment once you have broken your lease?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Breaking Lease Early - Paying until apartment is rented
Yes, there is a law that says how long you have to keep paying. You have to keep paying until the end of the lease term. If you move out after the 10th month of a 120-month lease, you're still liable for 110 months rent, because that's what you contracted to pay.
The harshness of this is diluted considerably in real life, however, because the landlord is only entitled to damages for breach of contract to the extent he suffers actual harm. If the landlord could have rented to someone else through reasonable efforts, his right to sue for and collect damages is accordingly limited. The is the so-called 'duty to mitigate' -- it isn't really a duty in the literal sense, just a rule for measuring damages.
Tenants can sometimes do themselves a lot of good by subletting, assigning and/or finding their own successor tenants. In this era of scarce apartments and high rents, it may be to your advantage to find someone yourself (someone you can trust!) to take over the unused portion of your tenancy.
Try to find someone, even if you have to subsidize them a little to induce them to take up the slack. So many people are looking for places these days it shouldn't be too hard. Then make sure the landlord knows what's going on and won't make an objection.
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