My son cannot afford his apartment. He is moving out. Don't they have to try to rent his apartment to others?

Question

They have a broken lease fee but now they say he has to pay the remaining rent. Why should he pay the fee if he has to pay all the rent anyway? Can they double dip, charge him full rent, and rent to someone else? He has no assets so suing him will not get them anything. I am offering them some kind of settlement as they can easily re-rent the aprtment. I underatnd Texas supreme court says they have to try to rent his place and olny charge him rent while the apartment was vacant. He makes minimum wage and has no assets so suing him seems rather a waste of time.

Answer 1

Your son signed a term lease agreement. That means that there is a specified date for the lease to end. He is breaking that agreement by moving out and costing the landlord because now they have to re-rent it, something that they wouldn't have had to do if your son hadn't failed in his contractual obligation. The "broken lease fee" is not a "get out of your lease free" fee. It's to cover the additional administrative costs incurred by the landlord for having to re-rent the suite mid-term.

They cannot collect two rents the same time for the same unit. If you are really worried about the L/L doing that, then maybe your son should stay living in the suite until a suitible applicant is found.

Where I'm from, when a tenant wants to break a lease agreement, the law is that the TENANT is responsible for advertising & showing the suite to prospective renters. As a landlord, our only duty is to minimize our lossess should a tenant abandon a rental unit (which, by the way, is what your son is doing).

Sueing is also not a waste of time. Is your son going to make minimum wage for the rest of his life? And you ddon't need assets. Wages and bank accounts can be garnished.

Your other option is to offer to do a lease buy-out. This amount is typically the equivilent of 2 months' rent. However, the buyout amount should not be confused with a rent payment because it is not. In this situation, the landlord could in fact rent the suite to someone else the month after your son moves out and you will still have to pay the buy out amount and this will not be considered double dipping.

As a landlord, this is a very frustrating attitude to deal with. "I can't afford it like I thought I could so I'm just leaving." I'm sorry, you signed a contract. You can't just leave.

Answer 2

The renting place, you didn't say if it was a management company, or the owner, it really doesn't make a lot of difference. They do have the responsibility to try to mitigate the loss. All the have to do is place an ad in the paper to meet that requirement. If they do in fact rent the same unit as your son was renting, then they can't charge him too. If they don't rent it then you son is on the hook for all of the remainder of the lease. The negative credit report will hurt your son for the next ten years. If he pays the remainder of the lease it will only hurt a little, you might be able to even talk them into not reporting the issue. If he doesn't pay it will be on his credit report and hinder his chances at getting another lease, or anything on credit.

Answer 3

Why should they have to bother with re-renting it when they have a signed lease in place? Why don't you go and show it since you are making a lot of excuses for your widdle baby and expecting a business to just chalk it up as a business loss. They can't raise the rent or change the lease terms during a lease, just like he can't decide he wants to break it. A lease is a legal contract.

All that being said, they have to mitigate damages, meaning after he leaves they will have to make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant. Once a new tenant is in place, they cannot continue to expect rent from your son. They can and will expect him to pay for every single day until that new tenant is found whether he is in the unit or not.

Answer 4

They can keep his deposit, but if they cannot find things to fix, that goes to rent. If they are active and rent quickly, then he owes rent only for the period not covered by the amount of his deposit going to rent. A deposit is considered as money for damages or repainting and/or as last months rent in this case if there is no painting or maintenance. Call you city department responsible for renting and they can help you figure out what happens in this case. Most places rent in the first 30 days, but landlords sometimes just leave it open to make the tenant pay. So get the correct city department involved.

Answer 5

Yes, they have to make a good faith effort to try to lease it. But your son signed a lease and is on the hook for the balance if they can't get it leased out.

It doesn't matter if your son has no assets, a judgment on his credit report will stay there a long time and will need to be paid off if he ever wants to buy a house or clean up his credit. They would be stupid not to sue.