I rented a house to a realtor who is now breaking the lease after 7 months. She sent me a certified letter which I reecieved 10 days before she moved out. She said I could keep her deposit which the lease says I can do if you breach but she said she is under no obligation to pay any more rent. We did try to sell it for the first month but now we are trying to sell or lease.
Can I keep her deposit for breaking the lease if it is stated in the lease?
Is she required to pay rent until I find a tenant?
Does it matter that I tried to sell it for a month before trying to rent it again?
One other thing. She also said she waived her commission that she would have been paid
When she rented my house and now she would like that credited toward anything she owes.
Do you know if that is that legal?

Any information would be appreciated.

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I would have to take a look at this lease. What are the terms of early termination?
And why would she get a commission if she was the one who rented it?

In most places, it is permissible to keep the security deposit if there is unpaid rent. However, if there were damages to the property that would come out of the deposit first.

It sounds like this realtor was renting the house from you with the intention of renting it to someone else (assuming for a profit). If so, was this specified in the lease anywhere? It would make it a commercial lease which has different rules from a residential lease.

Only if that was part of your agreement (that she re rent it) would her commission have anything to do with the issue. Even so, it would be far fetched.

She is, however, totally wrong about not being obligated to pay for the balance of the lease. The only thing that would remove that obligation would be if you found a new tenant. However, your putting it up for sale, might mitigaste that.

I think you need to consult an attorney about suing her.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. The terms of the lease state that if she fails to perform the terms of the lease she foreits her deposit and can be held responsible for any length of time the house is vacant from when she leaves and when a new person moves in. I have read the landlord/tenant law ch 83 and it's hard to tell if this is allowable or not.

As far as the commission she said because she is a real estate agent she should have received a commission. However I filled out the lease and all the paperwork and had no agreement with her or her broker about a commission. She said she waived the commission
And now she wants it credited back to her.

She's trying to confuse the issue. Unless you hired her to find a tenant and she ended up leasing it you owe her no commission. I thought commission was only on sales anyway, but that may be wrong.

She owes you the 5 months rent, send a registered letter asking for the rent and if she doesn't reply sue her.

Like I said the lease terms seem pretty standard. A lease is a contract. She agreed to lease the house for the time specified in the lease. She is responsible for that time. The only thing that relieves her of that responsibility is if you rent to someone else. You do have to make a good faith effort to find a new tenant.

I still don't see what she is talking about with commission. A real estate agent gets a commission when they find someone to occupy a property (either by purchase or rental). There would be no commission due if the agent is the purchaser/renter unless they were contracted with originally to move the property.

Also, the short notice she gave you is way out of line.

However, to recover anything you will probably have to sue her.