Legal Question in Real Estate Law in West Virginia

Lease Liability

It is difficult to answer your question withoutreviewing the lease in its entirity.However,Isuggest that you may be liable for the fulllease and lose your security deposit. I suggestyou seek the advice of local legal counsel andhave the entire lease reviewed.

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You know that the contract rules.

From the language you mention I will be inclined to say you are responsible for the whole year, but in some jurisdictions if the landlord rents the property during the term of your contract you get to deduct the amounts he make in the new lease because of "unjust enrichment".In the practice you usually will loose your deposit.

MAybe you'll owe more than the deposit.

There is a general rule of law that says a landlordmust "mitigate damages" which means he must attempt to rent to someone else for the balance of your lease termand, push come to shove, if you were represented by a good enough attorney, would have to prove he'd made goodefforts and was unable to do so. If he has a lot of places to rent, so that something is always open, and he rented other apartments during the balance of the lease term, there's a question of law whether your place should reallyhave been rented first instead of last.

If he finds a renter but at a lower rent, you'd be leftresponsible for the difference in rent for the balance of the term. He might be able to charge to you the expensesrelated to finding that other renter, but probably not.

If it takes a month or two to find a renter, you could beresponsible for just those months.

Practically speaking, most landlords will settle for the amountthey hold in deposit and let it go, but yours might not.

My recommendation: FIRST, TELL the landlord outright that you areleaving. (If it's for reasons beyond your control or his control, somuch the better, as far as your relationship with him would go.) See what he'll agree to. It's possible that, for example if he canshow the place while you're still there, he'll agree to let you go withouteven charging you a single extra month's rent. (Don't hold your breathexpecting him to agree to that, though.) More likely, he'll agree to chargeyou only one month's rent and let you leave. He might ask YOU to find himthe next renter, which would be difficult and he might not agree on who you'dfind, so you might want to dissuade him from that approach. (And anyway, if youcould find someone, you might be able to sublet, depending upon what's in yourlease agreement. I assume you don't know anyone to move right in.) Anotherangle to ask for is this: IF he finds someone to move in right after you, he givesyou your month's deposit back. He might not agree, but he really should because he'sgetting extra money he's not entitled to and in a court of law (which is a real hasslefor you), he'd probably be made to give it back to you, if there'd been no unpaid rental periods.