Tenants have the right to privacy, and if you violate that, the tenant may break the lease. However, tenants must first give you a formal written warning telling you to stop coming over unannounced. Rarely may tenants break the lease for this reason without a written notice on the books.
If the tenant found a place they prefer, is moving in with their partner, plans to buy a home, or is relocating out of town, the landlord not on the hook to release them early. Pro tip: Be prepared for your tenant to present false charges citing inhabitability or intrusiveness if they want to get out of paying you and the issue escalates to court. Keep maintenance records and photographs to show you maintained the unit well and made repairs quickly.
Even if your tenant decided to end the lease during an off-season or at a time inconvenient to your schedule, you must make an effort to re-rent the unit. You might have to go through the same procedures you normally would at the start of the season, like marketing the rental, showing the unit to prospective renters, and so on.
You still must complete your screening process to be sure the applicant meets all of your criteria. And in a few states, you can hold the original tenant liable for all of rent through the end of the term. However, once you fill the unit, your previous tenant is off the hook. Collecting double rent payments on the same unit is downright illegal. As an act of good faith, the tenant might offer to help find a new tenant.
This is not required, but can facilitate the process. You can also formally ask them to help you. Note: Do not allow the tenant to make commitments on your behalf by informally finding a sublet.
To save both you and the tenant from all the complicated process of finding a new tenant, consider writing an early termination of lease clause into your leasing paperwork from the get-go. If you formalize the allowance of an early termination with associated fees, you can protect yourself as well as give the tenant an easy way out.
It frees the tenant from being responsible for the remaining balance of the lease as well as gives you some cash to cover a few months of an empty unit while you search for a new renter.
Any more would be considered excessive by courts. Many early termination of lease clauses include an early termination fee. However, it helps to spell it all out in the lease. Work with your lawyer to develop a solid early termination of lease clause. Some points you may want to address are listed below:.
Draw this up with the proper legal language and include it clearly in your lease. You obviously want to find a new tenant as soon as possible, going through your normal tenant screening process. The goal is to have a paying tenant in your rental unit for as much time as possible with little to no time in a vacant state. Every day you are without a paying tenant, your past tenant has to pay.
Things get a bit messier when your tenant ups and leaves without notice and you have no way to get in touch with him after he leaves.
Things are muddled, too, when you initiate—knowingly or unknowingly—breaking a lease. It is not uncommon to wake up one morning to find that one of your rental units had been vacated without any notice. In this case, you had better follow all the proper procedures of your state. You want to make sure that you document everything.
You should try to find your ex-tenant, but you also need to find a new tenant to fill the vacancy, forcing you to double your efforts. If you breach a rental agreement or lease, your tenant has a right to end the lease before its end date. He technically did not break the lease—you did. In most jurisdictions, a tenant must give you 30 days or more notice before vacating the premises.
This should give you enough time to find a new tenant. In some jurisdictions, even with 30 days notice, the former tenant owes rent all the way up until the end of the lease or agreement , provided that the rental unit has not yet been occupied. A lease agreement with a fixed term means the tenant owes you rent until you can lease the property out again to a qualified renter or the lease expires, whichever happens first.
Whether the tenant gave you notice or simply vacated in secret, the methods for collecting rent are the same. Start a file for all written communication with the tenant that concerns the lease termination issue. If the tenant wrote you a notice about breaking the lease, keep that in the file. If the tenant left without warning, type up a short note about when you discovered the abandoned property and any actions you took to contact the tenant.
Write down all times, dates, phone numbers and notes of any phone conversations you have with the tenant. Keep all this information, and any future correspondence, in your file. You will need it when you attend a court hearing to recover any money owed. Send a written notice to the tenant to remind him that he must pay the rent until the lease term expires or you rent out the property to another tenant. Let him know that he should pay the rent on time, as usual, until you let him know about the new tenancy.
Remind him that if he doesn't pay the rent, as outlined in your lease agreement, you will have no choice but to pursue legal action. State that even though he does not live at the rental property anymore, he is still responsible for rent. Sign and date the letter, and keep a copy in your file. Hand deliver the letter or send it by certified or registered return mail to his current or last known address. Inspect the property before the tenant leaves, if you can.
Fill out an inspection checklist and discuss with the tenant any damages or issues with the property before he leaves. If the tenant abandoned the property, do an inspection on your own and note any damages.
Take pictures of anything you find that needs repaired beyond normal wear and tear.
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