Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida

Re: Lease Termination/Job Transfer

Without reviewing your lease agreement, we cannot provide you with any meaningful guidance on the issues you have raised. Review your lease, which controls the landlord-tenant relationship. In most instances, finding a job 250 miles away from the apartment, does not provide the tenant with a right to unilaterally terminate the one-year lease. Also, in most residential leases, pet fees and other fees required at the inception of the lease term are not pro-rated. And, even if they are able to be pro-rated, it is likely that the tenant forfeits that right if it breaches or defaults under the lease by attempting to terminate the lease in violation of its express terms and condition.

If the lease specifically requires a termination fee of $660.00, then you probably are legally bound to pay such fee in exchange for being released from your obligations and liabilities under the one-year lease. If you have a replacement tenant that is willing to move in immediately upon your move, try to persuade the landlord to entirely waive (or at least reduce) the termination fee since the landlord will not be damaged or incur costs associated with marketing and re-letting the property to a new tenant. Good luck.