neil

I don't have a problem paying something to get out of the lease. My problem is with the amount, and the fact that by law if they can find someone else to fill it then we should not have to pay anything.

To be honest I think we are in a better position than dbj1000 in that there is nothing in the lease about early termination. I checked with my wife and we were told we would be charged one month (still nothing in writing though). We had no option but to sign up to a year contract - they refused to give us another option and as we were getting married pretty soon after the end of our previous lease there was no way we could move. We have fairly given 2 months notice (which in the UK is pretty typical for any lease), and given what we were told we are going to fight the amount.

Another piece of this which is out of order, our lease states that rent is $x, there is another fee for internet and DirecTV, and another fee for parking (the parking is obviously optional, the internet etc. is not, but it is not part of the base rent in the lease), and they are trying to asking for 2 months of all of those amounts, whereas it really should just be 2 months of base rent (we could give up our parking spots tomorrow).

neil

Thanks for that. We're moving because we're buying a house. We'll argue the amount (I'm not arguing about having to pay something); we are not happy in this place - it's not the place we moved into a year and a half ago; new staff that aren't as friendly or helpful; too many students for what is supposed to be luxury living, etc.

Angry White Pyjamas

While I understand your frustration, the contract protects both parties.

And I assume you did sign it without a gun to your head. Next time read a contract carefully and question anything you think may bite you in the ass. Try to get a change or a concession written in before you sign. If they wont change then you have to accept it or look elsewhere. Sadly most people just blithely sign contracts without even reading them let alone bargaining for changes. A bad practice indeed.

Equally why didnt you wait until 2 months before the lease was due up to buy a house and arrange termination? That way you would have no excess to pay as the lease would come to a natural close after the notice period and you would be liable for nothing.

neil

While not quite without a gun to head, at the time we didn't have much choice, plus there is nothing in the contract about early termination and we felt very comfortable with the staff who were there at that time to really believe what they told us.

Secondly, I would never consider buying something like a house under the constraints of time like the end of a lease. We wanted to take our time to find the right place, not just somewhere that was good enough for now. We were fortunate enough to find that place.

I feel like I'm getting a bit of a hard time on this one - I did actually ask in my original post whether I should refuse to pay termination charges and just continue paying until they find new tenants (as per NJ law), as under this law they would have to prove they were doing enough to find new tenants, and it could work out in our favour doing it that way, although it would be a risk.

fatbrit

There are two sides to this. Our one and only apartment rental taken when we first arrived was a mixed bag. It was a huge complex owned by a large management company. Some parts were excellent such as the maintenance. For example, our water tank started seeping water at the bottom and they had the old one out and the new one in within 2 hours.

But the office staff were a pile of no-hopers. When we first agreed to the lease, they provided the contract and, as we weren't moving in for a couple of days and it was late in the evening, I said I would take the contract so I could read it over, then we'd come and sign it in the morning. This was not allowed because it was, in their words, a "legal document". I really didn't know what to answer to this one, so we didn't take it home but arrived the following morning, sat there and read through it for an hour in their office, then signed it. They were very reluctant to give us a copy, but since it actually stated we would get a copy in the contract I managed to persuade them to do this without excessive sarcasm. I couldn't quite understand what all the fuss was about, especially since the contract was a standard printed one from the local landlords' association together with a ragpile of silly addendums. Why does American paperwork always have to use 6 different paper sizes and 5 different fonts in 27 different point sizes?

All went well by avoiding and ignoring them at every opportunity until the end of the lease where the contract stated I must give 30 days written notice regardless of whether the lease was terminating . So I convened Word two months before departure, typed them up a quick ditty and sent is by registered post. A week later the manager knocked on the door and said they couldn't possibly accept my notification of termination of lease because it wasn't on their official form. So I asked her where on the contract it stated the notice could only be written on their official form. She said it wasn't but it was company policy. I told her I wasn't a member of her company and that was her problem, to which she became extremely uppity. So I told her I'd see her in court, then as there didn't seem any point in continuing the conversation.

At the final inspection to release the security deposit, I turned up. She seemed so put out by this that she whizzed through the apartment in 30 seconds flat, announced everything was in excellent order, and signed off on a full return then and there.

LeedsGirl

Be thankful your Landlord isn't asking you for the cost of them having to find another tenant and their advertising expenses. They are well within their right for you to compensate them for those expenses. Is your termination charge in your lease?

psb182

he rented from Ray

BritGuyTN

ROFLMAO

neil

They are not within their rights to ask for that, and no, there is no reference to any charge in the lease - Tenants Rights


Moving out before the lease ends
If you move out before the end of the lease, the landlord may be able to hold you responsible for the rent that becomes due until the apartment or house is rented again, or until the lease ends.

For example, if you move out during July and your lease ends on October 31, you could be held responsible for the rents of August, September, and October. But if another tenant moves in on September 1, then the landlord may sue you only for August’s rent. This does not apply if the landlord agrees in writing to let you move before the lease ends.

If a tenant moves out before the lease ends, the landlord must try to re-rent the apartment. This means that in order to recover rent for the months left on the lease, the landlord must prove that he or she tried to find another tenant but could not. The landlord must show, for example, that he or she immediately began advertising the apartment and interviewing tenants. Cite: Sommer v. Kridel, 74 N.J. 446 (1977).

LeedsGirl

If you don't have a termination charge in your lease then don't pay them. I deal with this all the time in my business and have never charged any tenant a termination fee, only the amount of rent due until I have found another tenant. Good luck.

RoadWarriorFromLP

The penalties are fairly normal, those are neither surprising or unusual. I'd check your state and local laws (the latter in particular if you live in a jurisdiction with rent control) to see if there is a maximum amount that the landlord is permitted to charge for breaking a lease.

Otherwise, have you thought about renting it out yourself? I would read your lease to see if it permits subleasing or assignment, or more to the point, whether the landlord's consent is required for you to do either one of these.

In a sublease, you effectively become a sub-landlord for a new tenant to whom you rent the unit. However, you are still responsible for paying the rent to the landlord,and any issues of non-payment or damage between you and your subtenant are your problem.

A better alternative is an assignment, in which someone else takes on your lease, signs his own agreement with the landlord, and you are no longer responsible. (Strictly speaking, the assignment should run through the length of your current lease, but your landlord may be able to demand a longer lease period for the new tenant.) In this scenario, it would most likely be your responsibility to find the replacement tenant.

If subleasing or assignment are permitted, or if the landlord will agree to an assignment, you might want to try advertising in whatever sources are good for finding rentals in your market (local newspaper classified, college and university housing boards, Craigslist, etc.) and see if you attract any interest. I would be wary of subleasing if you are moving far from the unit and have no way to manage the unit (yes, this effectively makes you a property manager), and in any case, I would try to assign if possible unless you are paying rent well below market and might be able to benefit from some arbitrage (i.e. charging higher rent to your subtenant than you are paying to the landlord.)

neil

I'm sure if we could find new tenants there wouldn't be a problem, but we don't really have time to put the effort into that. I think I'd rather just pay to get out than that, and I would definitely not sublet (I think that's not allowed under our lease anyway).

Thanks again to everyone for all the ideas on how to approach this. We are now discussing the amount with the leasing office so hopefully we'll sort something out.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Fair enough. Just so you know, subletting is generally permitted, except when units are rent controlled. A lease that forbids subletting in the absence of rent control may not be legal (in other words, the clause can be voidable). The landlord's consent is generally required, but reasonable consent cannot be withheld, i.e. if the tenant has acceptable credit and history, the sublease should be permitted.

You may be surprised how quickly one can find new tenants. I've done this myself, and it really isn't too difficult much of the time. Unless you're leaving town and are unable to screen them, etc., it might be quite a bit easier than you think.

Angry White Pyjamas

No not a hard time. Just being realistic. If you refuse to pay, you may well eventually win in the courts but by then your credit rating will have suffered and you will most likely be blacklisted if you ever try to rent again.

When a contract is signed its binding on both parties and its up to you to either read it and get it changed or accept it prior to signing. Once signed you cant then turn round and say "Oh Ive changed my mind I didnt like that clause." It sucks but thats life. Learn by it.

Regarding the house i meant why didnt you attempt to coincide the purchase and moving into of the house with the near end of your lease? At the very worst you could have saved a months rent.

By the way...You have read your mortage contract havent you?

neil

I'm not sure why you're so obsessed with whether I read my contract - of course I did and got a copy. The early termination fees are not in the contract as I have mentioned before. They are charging a fee for which there is no NJ law. The "Truth in Renting" brochure they have to give us (link provided above) talks only of letting us out of the lease early or us having to pay until someone else moves in. I now have to make a decision on whether to pay these charges or hold out and see what happens to the place once we have left. In effect, the documents they have sent us with regards to the termination only ask for payment of these charges and do not mention alternative options (they probably assume we have not read the Truth in Renting brochure they gave us, and think we'll just pay up - which I'm sure many people do).

With regards to the house, we found the right place, and the timing is what it is - we would have had to wait until April at least to avoid early termination and I'm sure the seller wouldn't have wanted to wait that long.