Ask Me Help Desk - Apartment Termination

I live in the Ethans Apartments in KAnsas City Missouri. I am being tansferred to Iowa for my job. My wife is staying in the apartment until the end of December, and the lease is up the middle of March. The landlord told me that a job transfer is a vaild reason to break the lease. Now they are saying that they never told me that and want to charge me 3 months rent plus my deposit to break my lease. Can they do that, and what can I do?-adam

Hello adam:

Bummer! They're right. There is no out because you got transferred. They are obligated to "mitigate" your losses, though. That means they need to attempt to rent the apartment asap, and return the difference to you when they do. Make sure they do that.

excon

Did the "landlord" tell you that or did someone in the management office tell you? I suspect the latter and that the person who told you didn't know what they were talking about. With the possible exception of military personnel, I don't think relocation is a valid reason for breaking a lease.

That being said, What I would do is have your wife move at the end of December. After the movers have left make sure you take photos to show the condition of the apt (even better have a 3rd party do a walk through with her).

Tell the landlord, that you will be moving at that point and tell them to bill you for whatever time the apt remains unrented.

I can not speak to MO Landlord Tenant law, but you did not mention the language concerning termination in your lease document. Assuming that you have a written lease document, I would very carefully check the language concerning termination of the lease. Some lease documents, do allow for termination of a lease because of a change in employment, military relocations and the like. Yours may not. Also, pay attention to the term of the lease and requirements for notices to the landlord. If you are in the original term of the lease (1yr etc), it may be very diffilcult to break the lease. If outside of the original term, you may be in a month to month arrangement. But it doesn't sound like that is the case.

However, many Landlords and Management companies can be very reasonable too.

I recommend that you give them written notice to terminate the lease. Make certain that you schedule a walk through (awkard as it may feel) before you return the keys to them to protect whatever deposit monies are in place. By giving them proper notice you will allow the Landlord ample opportunity to rent the apartment, perhaps minimizing their vacancy of your apartment. If you simply abandon the aprtment, the Landlord will most likely file a claim against you for the full amount of the remaining lease and a judgement will be entered against for this amount. You want to prevent this.

A reasonable landlord only wants to keep his or her apartments rented. When they are vacant, they do not receive money. Thereby reducing income.

Quote:

Originally Posted by seacoast

A reasonable landlord only wants to keep his or her apartments rented. When they are vacant, they do not receive money. Thereby reducing income.

This is mostly true. But if the apt does remain vacant, since they do want to receive their rental, they would go after the lease breaker, at least until the unit is re-rented.

Let's back up for a minute. According to the original post, the tenant plans on staying in the apartment until the end of December. The lease term ends in the middle of March. The landlord wants them to pay 3 months rent plus the deposit in order to break the lease. But if they don't make this deal with the landlord then the worst that can happen is that they pay 2.5 months worth of rent and they may get their security deposit returned.

Vaultstud, if I were in your position I would immediately send a letter to the landlord by certified mail and regular mail, stating that I will be vacating the apartment as of 12/31 and I want a walk-thru with the landlord at that time for purposes of determining the condition of the apartment. I would also say that I expect that the landlord will make its best efforts to re-rent the apartment according to law but that I understand that if the landlord is unable to re-rent the apartment before March 15th then I am responsible for the rent until that date. Finally I would state in the letter that I expect the return of the security deposit, minus any agreed-upon charges, when the apartment is re-rented or the lease term ends, whichever is earlier.

This way if you're lucky the landlord will re-rent in January, you'll get back all (or most) of your security deposit and you won't owe any more rent. The worst that can happen is that you owe them rent until March 15th if they can't re-rent.

MOST IMPORTANT--you or your wife should do a walk-thru with the landlord when you're all moved out and TAKE PICTURES!!