About two weeks ago, my landlord said he would allow me to vacate my apartment early due to my several "displeasures with my experience" and has an interested party who wanted to see the apartment . My displeasures would include 13 days without heat, being incorrectly over charged for utilities, furnace fire, property not being properly maintained, having to do laundry by flashlight due to inoperative lighting in basement, etc.

I had honestly never thought of an early termination since I only have a month and half left on my lease. He said he would allow me to vacate early only if I find another tenant. I do not believe this will be a sublease arrangement, but a completely new lease. Clean slate so-to-speak. I have done some advertising and have had showed the apartment to about 20 people. A couple people do have appointments with the landlord next week.

I am very concerned that my landlord will not give me back my security deposit or rectify my overpayment for utilities. The last time I had spoken to him, he was very unprofessional and disrespectful when I came to discuss his proposal of vacating early. If he accepts a new tenant and agrees to allow me to move out early, could that still be considered a violation of the lease? I am afraid that he is going to make this as difficult as possible for me. My apartment has been maintained in pristine condition. There are no damages caused by myself or my guests. But I wouldn't put it past this guy to kick a hole in the wall and claim it was my fault. Can I request to be present for his inspection?

I want to make sure that I am protected and have all of my ducks in row. Any advisement would be great!

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Originally Posted by Apartment RO

About two weeks ago, my landlord said he would allow me to vacate my apartment early due to my several "displeasures with my experience" and has an interested party who wanted to see the apartment . My displeasures would include 13 days without heat, being incorrectly over charged for utilities, furnace fire, property not being properly maintained, having to do laundry by flashlight due to inoperative lighting in basement, etc.

I had honestly never thought of an early termination since I only have a month and half left on my lease. He said he would allow me to vacate early only if I find another tenant. I do not believe this will be a sublease arrangement, but a completely new lease. Clean slate so-to-speak. I have done some advertising and have had showed the apartment to about 20 people. A couple people do have appointments with the landlord next week.

I am very concerned that my landlord will not give me back my security deposit or rectify my overpayment for utilities. The last time I had spoken to him, he was very unprofessional and disrespectful when I came to discuss his proposal of vacating early. If he accepts a new tenant and agrees to allow me to move out early, could that still be considered a violation of the lease? I am afraid that he is going to make this as difficult as possible for me. My apartment has been maintained in pristine condition. There are no damages caused by myself or my guests. But I wouldn't put it past this guy to kick a hole in the wall and claim it was my fault. Can I request to be present for his inspection?

I want to make sure that I am protected and have all of my ducks in row. Any advisement would be great!

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You make a written demand for any monies you think are owed you and then sue the landlord in small claims court.

With only a month and a half left, you are doing the landlord a favor by paying for the advertising, showing the property and finding him a new one year tenant. With that said, it would be wise for you to read your lease agreement so you know what your legal responsibilities are. Usually, if you leave before the lease is over, you are responsible for the rent until the property is re-rented or until the lease ends, plus any expenses attached to re-renting (advertising, possible utilities etc.) If you leave and the property is not rented, the security deposit is going to be used to pay the rent. If utility payments are due, that will also come out of the security deposit.

When you moved in, you probably did a walk through. Hopefully you wrote down anything and everything that was not in acceptable condition. The landlord will do another walk through after you leave. Any damage found that was not listed on your initial walk through will be repaired. Your landlord is required to tell you how he used your security deposit or return it to you. If possible, see if your landlord will conduct his walk through with you present. He is NOT required to have you present. If he does allow you to be there, bring an unbiased individual with you to the walk through. You should also consider taking pictures of each room, showing that there were no holes in the walls.

Again, read your lease carefully. Have you given WRITTEN notice of your intentions? Most leases specify that you must give written notice (30/45/60 days?) If you are worried, I recommend that you stay the full term of the lease and give proper notice.

Utilities: If, after you have moved out, you are not happy with the final financials you can always go to small claims court.

Thanks for the advice. My landlord is a "off the cuff" kind of guy. I'm assuming this may be common practice for landlords not associated with a property company or complex. He never preformed a credit check, never asked for references, does not have any personal information on file (he has my name and cell phone number), and I do not believe he did a inspection before I moved in. It was not as clean as I would keep it and the previous tenants did most of the dealings with getting me set up - giving me the keys and stuff. Our moving days overlapped - so as they were moving out, I was moving in. I don't ever remember seeing him stopping by to take a look. He probably asked the previous tenants if there was any damage and took it on good faith. As he did when he asked if my credit was good - I said yes (because I had it checked for my own piece of mind) and he handed me a lease agreement to sign. I feel that as long as a check is coming in, he's cool with whatever.

I did try to present to him a termination lease agreement for him to review and that we could discuss, negotiate on, come to a compromise, and to cover my butt with having something in writing with my intentions, but he wouldn't even look at it. He instantly became very upset and kicked me out of his office. I am not really sure why he reacted that way because I told him that my intensions were not to screw him or burn bridges. I was there to discuss his offer, but he was not having any of it and did not want to talk to me. He was "done with me".

I have not spoken to him since as I have needed time to cool down from his unprofessional and disrespectful treatment. He has been out of town and during that time I have been showing my apartment, taking calls, and emails of interested parties. I have been very careful in directing more specific questions to the landlord as I do not want to speak for the landlord on lease terms, finacials, etc. I do know that there are 3 or 4 very interested people to move in when I am looking to vacate. He is supposed to be meeting with them tomorrow and the following date to discuss the lease agreement and possibly sign a new tenant for my apartment.


I did consult my lawyer after posting on this site. I know an early termination may not be a cake walk even with the landlord allowing me to vacate early and finding a new tenant. I really want to keep things as professional as possible with my landlord and do the right thing. I am only following through with vacating early because he offered that as an option and I put things in motion and found a new home. I think he is trying to get rid of me because I have had multiple complaints which valid or not, may have ticked him off. I understand that I have a legally binding document that I am responsible to uphold. And I want things to be as fair as possible between myself and the landlord. I really hope things work out and we are able to compromise. My only sure way out at this point seems to be if the landlord is willing to do so.

The only protection you will have is to get it in writing.

As far as the deposit goes, you need to do a walkthru, either with the LL or an unbiased 3rd party and to take pictures to support your claims if he doesn't return the security.

As for his attitude, either he felt insutled because you wouldn't take his word or he is afraid to put anything in writing.

A more direct way would be to short pay the last months rent by the amount of the security deposit plus your overpayment on utilities. Make sure you have everything documented, all the bills you overpaid, pictures of the apt to show you didn't damage anything etc.

Then present him to this with what you calculate as the amount you owe him when you leave and tell him to keep the security deposit. He'll probably be pissed cause he sounds like the type of guy who won't give back the security deposit and make up a reason why.