Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Maryland

Good Morning. I signed a lease with a apartment rental company. My lease is up in September. Today I found out my cousin is selling her trailer. So I want to buy it as our home and not rent any more. I called my rental office about breaking my lease and they said they would keep my deposit and charge me two months of rent for breaking the lease, even with given them a 4 month window of us leaving. I would not be moving out till April 30, 2010. Our lease would be up in September. Can they charge me 2 months rent and keep my deposit for breaking a lease?


Asked on 1/25/10, 7:51 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cedulie Laumann Arden Law Firm, LLC

Generally speaking, a landlord can hold you responsible for the lease term, although they must credit you if they are able to re-rent the same unit. However, there may be limitations to this. I suggest you immediately re-read your lease and check the language, particularly the part that talks about notice for termination. The lease will control what you must do and specify how much advance notice you must give. For instance, if the lease required a 60 day written notice and a tenant only gave 30 days notice, the landlord could charge rent for the 30 days after they left but if the tenant gave the full notice as required by the lease (and the way the lease requires that the notice be given) the landlord could not collect any more rent.

Some counties in Maryland have specialized landlord/tenant rules that offer more protection than state law so it may be wise to check these local rules (you didn't mention what county this apartment is located in).

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Answered on 2/06/10, 2:27 pm


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