Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: tenant

Talk with your new landlord and give it a try, especially if the place can be rented.

Re: tenant

You are entitled to a copy of your lease, but I don't think failure of the landlord to furnish one is a sufficient breach to be a default or ground for rescission. Were you thinking it was, or do you have some other ground? There is no general right to back out of a lease nor any cooling-off period or rescission privilege. On the other hand, the landlord's ability to sue for and recover damages for breach of lease is limited to losses it actually suffers despite reasonable attempts to mitigate losses by finding another tenant. Your best bet to avoid problems is to sit down and negotiate with the landlord. You may get lucky and there will be another renter ready to take over your space. Generally, hiding from the landlord or manager is a bad strategy and results in a longer period of vacancy and hence a larger recovery for the landlord if and when it sues. Who knows, by being helpful promptly, you might even get some or all of your deposit back through a re-rental; the January start date will be helpful in finding the substitute tenant.