I moved to a house in Florida 6 months ago and had to move back to Texas - lost my job and for family reasons. Now the landlord wants me to pay them $8000 to cover the rest of the 6 months rent left to pay... how can I get out of this and is this legal?

If you just left the rental post haste without informing the landlord that you were having a problem, then yes, its legal. He justs wants his rent if you left in a hurry.

If you care to explain more then maybe you can get a better answer. Sorry. Just not enough information to go on.

You picked the wrong state to break a lease in. Florida law allows the landlord to sit on your apartment and demand the full rent from you. Any other state and they would be required to try and rent the place to someone else. So, your best bet is to go and grovel and see if you can work something out with the landlord. You can see if they will let you buy-out your lease (which really doesn't sound too likely, since they are already asking you for the full costs), or you can see if they will let you sublet (which might be hard, since you are now in Texas), or see if they will let you find someone who will move into the place now, so that they can sign a new lease with the landlord.

Yes, as long as they did not rent this to someone else they can hold you liable for full rent and in many times in having min power on in the apartment.

If you just left the rental post haste without informing the landlord that you were having a problem, then yes, its legal. He justs wants his rent if you left in a hurry.

If you care to explain more then maybe you can get a better answer. Sorry. Just not enough information to go on.

It's legal regardless of "how" they left.

I agree with Froggy... go beg for mercy. Offer to help find a replacement for yourself (pay for ads, hire someone to put up signs, etc - obviously what you can do is limited if you're not there).