Is it fair for an apartment complex to charge you late fee's, etc if you have already given notice & moved out

Question

Here's more info: I have lived in my apartment for just under 2 1/2 yrs. At the begining of this year the company was changed, I felt pressured into signing a new lease when mine was up, however I only signed for 6 months knowing I would be leaving. Now with two months left to go (July & August) I am stuck paying for it monthly. In my lease it simply says something to the effect of being responsibile for it until my lease is up. When I gave them my 30 day notice I told them a date the middle of June, so I did pay my full month's rent on time for June. However, I do not find it fair for me to keep having to pay monthly now that I am out. I do not know when they will rent the property, and I don't want to be paying for a month when someone else is moving in when I've paid also! I know they can't "double charge" but I know that they would come up with something that the money would have to go for. I think they should have to send me a bill w/o late fees at the end of my lease.

Possibly I didn't clarify my complaint. I know I am in a lease and am responsible for the two months remaining. However, I do not think it is fair to require me to pay them by the first any longer as I am not there and they could be rented out in the meantime. However, if I don't pay the rent on time, I will aquire late fee's. I think it is typical as with any other complex that when I've moved out, it turns into more of a "bill". They add your months you still owe, and any fee's in cleaning/maintenance deduct your deposit and send you a bill for the remaining amount. Maybe it still sounds the same..but in the end..I do understand I am responsible for the two months..just not in the same form of paying as I had been before.

Answer 1

Yes, you must abide by the original terms of the lease. It says that rent is due on the 1st day of the month. You are still "in" your lease, even though you don't live there any longer. If your rent is not paid on time, they can and will assess late charges in accordance with their rights as set forth in the original lease agreement.
If they relet your apartment, all monthly rent will cease on your part and if you've already paid through the end of any given month, you are entitled to a full refund on a prorated basis from the first day of the new tenant's occupancy.
If you find that someone is living in your old apartment and they are still collecting rent from you, hire an attorney and contact the nearest Tenant's Council in your area. You will probably be entitled to compensatory damages ($$$).

Answer 2

Depends on your lease. A lease is simply a contract, and you are bound by its terms. Yes, if the rent is paid after (usually) the 5th of the month, the landlord is entitled to charge late fees. And usually a landlord should show your apartment as available for a new resident, but if he has other vacancies he is not obligated to feature your apartment over others. Your best bet is to advertise it for a sublet (try craigslist) and bring him prospective residents. He is obligated to consider these prospective residents, and if they qualify, they will be paying the rent. Good luck. And, in your favor, apartment leasing is up. The buildings I manage are 100 percent filled, with a waiting list.

Answer 3

It is fair; you signed a contract. You are obligated to pay until the exact date designated on the legally binding contract. It may not be any fun, but that is how it works. I am a landlord of one tenant (we own a single-family home that we rent out) and trust me, it is not easy getting a good tenant. You have to advertise again, clean and fix everything again... yes, those are things that we would have had to do at the end of the original lease anyway but look at it this way:
John Doe signs a one year lease on Jan. 1 and breaks his contract on Oct. 15.
Let's say we get a tenant in on Dec. 15 (normal timing, btw) who signs a lease end date of Dec. 15 the following year. Let's say this tenant also breaks his lease and leaves in June.
We get another new tenant in August who should be there for a year but decides to leave in July of the following year.
So we have had 3 tenants in the space of about two years. Ideally, as landlords we should only have to re-advertise the rental property twice - once for the original tenant and once when his lease expired. But we had to pay for advertising three times, which costs, at a minimum, 50 dollars. And there is the extra cleaning time that we, ourselves, do, the shopping for lighbulbs to replace, batteries for the smoke detectors, cleaning products... not all of this may be able to come out of the security deposit. Sometimes we may have to use the security deposit as rent money if a tenant refuses to pay, and then have to go after the tenant in small claims court to retrieve the extra money due us. That means one of us has to take at least a day off of work, because this is not our primary income.
Now, I understand that as a tenant in an apartment complex, you do not feel that you are making anyone's life harder by leaving early. Maybe in this case you aren't. But I want you to understand that landlords are people with mortgages (one for the rental house and one for their own), children, and regular bills.
If you don't pay (or won't pay) the rent, we have to come up with it to pay the monthly mortgage. And the money may not be there all the time to do that in the rental properties bank account.
The rent isn't that much more than the mortgage payment, and when you have to pay property taxes, that takes a HUGE chunk out of what little you've accrued from rental income.

Answer 4

Yes, sorry, its fair. When you sign a lease, you are obligated to pay for it- if they let you break the lease, that is them being nice. They dont have to do it, and they can sue you for not paying it. You should have ridden out the lease before moving, now you will have to pay up, big mistake! Cross your fingers that someone else rents the place, otherwise you will owe all the money for July and August.

Answer 5

A grace era is a grace era. lease is due on the first of the month you ought to have huge-spread it replaced right into a visit and pay in boost. contact the administration and spot what you may negotiable which includes pay a yet another month in the previous and spot in the adventure that they could have it waived i hit upon it ridiculous they do no longer have a drop-container are you effective you in reality do no longer understand they have one ?

Answer 6

a apartment complex with a lease agreement has certain clauses. and yours is probably one of them.