If you’re thinking about breaking a lease, hopefully you’ll take some time to sit and consider your options. Breaking a lease will likely have significant repercussions and should not be done impulsively.
Here are some factors to consider in deciding whether or not you should break your apartment lease.
Why are you considering breaking the lease?
The first thing you need to figure out is what other options you might have. If you’re looking to break the lease because the apartment isn’t habitable or safe, contact a local tenants’ rights association or legal-aid office. It may be that your landlord has violated the lease agreement by not providing you with a safe space. If this is the case, you’ll need to get in touch with local resources, as legal language and habitability standards vary from state to state.
Also, make sure to collect plenty of documentation, including photographs of damage and copies of police reports and certified letters you’ve mailed to the apartment owner describing the situation and requesting assistance or repairs. Even if the problem is something as egregious as failure to provide water or heat, document the situation as best you can.
What if the apartment itself isn’t the problem? Maybe you need to leave quickly because of a family emergency in another state, or you’re just not sure you’ll have the cash for next month’s rent. In that case, talk to your landlord. If you live in a large apartment community, you probably aren’t the first tenant to suffer some sort of financial hardship. If you communicate your situation as early as possible, you may be able to work something out that is suitable to both parties. Perhaps the two of you could negotiate a payment plan, or you might be allowed to find another tenant to take over the remainder of the lease. Even if the management can’t help you directly, by your communication, management can’t accuse you of skipping out with no notice.
Possible consequences of breaking your lease
Skipping out with no notice and no forwarding address is generally not a good idea, for the following reasons:
- You will still be legally liable to pay the rent for the remaining months of your lease, even if the landlord finds another tenant. (If the new tenant is paying less rent than you were, you’ll have to make up the difference.)
- Your landlord will have the option of suing you in small-claims court for the remainder of your rent due. If you lose, you may also be responsible for the landlord’s attorney’s fees, as well as any fees you incurred defending yourself.
- Your landlord may call in a collection agency to help get the remaining rent. That, in turn, can show up as a problem on your credit report.
- Your landlord isn’t likely to recommend you to any future communities when you apply for a new apartment. If your community is part of a larger national chain, you could find your apartment options limited in many different places.
How to handle the situation
In short, there’s a right way and a wrong way to break a lease. The right way is to communicate your intentions to your landlord, keeping a record of doing so. Even if your landlord is doing a terrible job of maintaining the apartment or the community, the wrong way to handle the situation is to leave rashly in a fit of anger or fear.
Any situation where you have to break a lease agreement is unpleasant, but if you can keep from acting too impulsively and follow the legal provisions available to you, you’ll make things easier on yourself in the long run. Weigh your living decisions carefully, and take the appropriate measures if you decide you must break an apartment lease.
