I have been relocated to a job from fort worth tx. To Alabama. I need to get out of my lease but my landlord said I will have to pay the lease out and give a 60 day notice. Is this right or the law or do I have the right to give a 30 day notice and release my deposit as last month rent and move on to my new job without worry about being sued

Yes you are right, he has your first and last so just give him 30 days notice and go

The landlord is most likely correct. Unless the lease includes an early termination clause, then he can hold you to the length of the lease. You need to read your lease carefully and check local laws as well. The lease may also specify a 60 notification.

Also, while many states allow the LL to withhold a deposit for unpaid rent, that's the landlord's decision not the tenant's.

Your best option is trying to negotiate a buyout with the landlord or get a sublet. You should also check with your job, if they are relocating you, they may have provisions for dealing with this type of situation.

Read what your lease says. That's what the courts will go by. Assuming it conforms to the Texas LL/Tenant property code. (See a link to that in the first post on this forum.)

In my (TX) lease which is written by the Texas Apartment Assn you would have to give a 30 day notice (unless I wrote in something longer), and the only kind of job transfer that would expempt you from being responsible for the whole lease is if you were drafted or called to active duty in the military.

Does your complex have a lot of vacancies? Do they typically fill up fast? Try to negotiate something with them and leave the place in pristine condition so that someone can move right in. If they wound up sueing you it would almost certainly go against you. TX is probably the most landlord friendly state and by signing the lease you probably agreed to what they're now telling you will happen.

Sorry,
Karla in TX

ScottGem, I tend to disagree with your disagreement of my opinion regarding breaking of this lease. We all tend to forget that there are different rules for different places and south of the border every state seems to be entirely different in how they treat landlord/tenant disagreements.

Your advice is always excellent of course and I am not disputing that, but don't forget I am from a basically foreign country so our rules are different and as far as tenant/landlord disagreements go, Ontario leans more towards the tenant then the landlord, I know that first hand because I have been in a couple of sticky situations. I gave her my advice the way I would have handled it if I was in that situation. Some people may not like it but that's their problem.

When giving advice here there can't be any gray areas, it can only be black and white and I see that. So I just couldn't sit back, as is my nature, without defending my opinion.

Tickle,
First, you have given a lot of good advice, which is why your answer here surprised me. And yes there are sometimes grey areas but I don't think this is one of them. Even if Canada is more tenant oriented, I can't conceive that they just let tenants break leases indiscriminately. I would have to see some sort of statute that says a tenant can just break a lease with 30 days notice and not be held responsible. Remember a lease is a contract and contract law in both the US and Canada is based on the English model.

Since the OP indicated she was in Texas, even if Canadian laws were more tenant oriented, she isn't in Canada.

But this is really not a "tenant/landlord disagreement". The OP signed a lease. As Karla mentioned, Texas leases usually follow the TAA standard. That standard does not allow relocation (except by military) as a reason for early termination. It also does not allow the tenant to not pay the last month rent because the landlord has a deposit. The only real question is whether she needs to give 30 or 60 days and that depends on the lease.

BTW, I got a PM from the OP thanking me for my advice, though she was hoping for something different.

Thank You All For Your Answers. It Has Meant A lot To Me To Get A Better Idea On What I Should Do. Hope To Talk To All Of You Again.
Thanks Oceangirl