How to Break your Apartment Lease

Breaking an apartment lease is a lot easier then getting out of a mortgage, but it can still pose some problems, if you do not go about it right.

If you have signed a one year apartment lease agreement, and need to move before the leases end, do not just walk away from the apartment.

This will ruin your credit and probably make you ineligible to rent again, until that debt is settled. So it is important to go about things the correct way.

Read you Rental Agreement

If you need to get out of a lease, make sure to read your lease carefully. Your apartment lease agreement, will tell you when and under what situations you are eligible to break your lease. There are many different situations the will all of you to walk away without penalty. It depends on you landlord. Here are the usual accepted reasons:

• Death
• Army Deployment
• Job relocation

Some property owners will allow you to find someone to take over your lease, for the remaining months. You can put an ad in the paper, ask around or use Craigslist to post you opportunity.

It you want a quick response, it is a good idea to sweeten the pot by offering the apartment for, say $50 less than you are paying or offer one month free.

When you find someone interested in subletting you apartment, they must go through the same screening process and if they were renting an apartment themselves.

That means they have to have employment sufficient to pay the rent a good credit background and no felonies on their record.

In most cases, if you don’t have a legitimate reason for breaking your apartment lease, you will be expected to pay the remainder of the rent owned on the lease.

In some cases, you will be required to pay a percentage of the remaining rent as long as you give two months notices of your intent to vacate.

This two month period will give the lesser time to rent the apartment to someone else.

If you desire to break you lease because the apartment, has had several severe problems on the property, and the apartment agent has failed to rectify the problems, you may need to contact a tenants’ rights organization or your legal aid office.

Reasons for Getting Legal Advice

If you are having any of these problems, had contacted the owner and asked to have them fixed and you have not received help you may need to contact out side help.

• You apartment was broken into and the property owner refused to change the locks

• you are fearful of you life because of harassment by an insane tenant

• you have a severe rat and roach problem and the landlord has not sent an exterminator

• you have had a bad mold problem and you or someone in your family has asthma or other breathing problems.

If you have had an agreeable relationship with the leasing agent, sometimes they will make exceptions to your situation. So if you are a good tenant, always pay your rent on time or early and have no complaints, you may be in a better position to make a deal.

If you have defaulted on you lease, the property owner will take out a judgment against you. You will have an opportunity to settle your debt before or at the time of your court date. If you have not paid the judgment your credit will be effects for seven years.

If you in the future want to settle your debt, contact the collection agent and make an agreement with the collect to pay all or part of the unpaid rent. Most of the time, the property owner will rather get some of the money then none at all.