Circumstances require I move, but I am stuck with at least 7 months on my lease

[Cowboy Medic]

Hey guys, just looking for some advice here. I moved to Sioux Falls in August to take a job. I wound up quitting due to some legal and ethical issues with how the business was ran and how they treated their patients. Don't really want to go into any more detail on that here.



My question lies in that we signed a lease for 12 months. Financially we cannot afford it since I have not been working for a couple of weeks now and my wife only works part time since she is in college full time. In addition she is commuting 1 hour each way five days a week, so that costs as well. We have enough in Savings to get us through the holidays but we would really like to be moved down to Vermillion shortly after the first of the year. We are going to be going over to talk to the apartment managers on monday or tuesday and discuss options on getting out of the lease.



Is there anything I should be aware of that could help. I have never had to deal with this before. Several people have just said to move out if they won't let us out of the lease saying that because we don't have any money to speak of at this point in time they probably wouldn't bother spending the money to go after us, but I really don't like the flavor that leaves in my mouth, but just don't know what else I can do.



Anything you guys can tell me about your experiences or whatever would be a great help. I really don't want to leave them high and dry but we can't afford to stay here.



Thanks



Jon

 

[daveshoe]

I am a landlord. If someone were in your position ,here is what I would consider fair to them and to me.

Realize the unit will probably be empty for a month. That is a month that you should pay for. Get the unit SPOTLESS . Offer to let the landlord show it while you are still in it[You should be there to make sure no one steals personal effects during the showing Make a note of every nail that you drove into the wall to hang a picture. Give this list to the landlord and have him quote the charge to repair them. I hate it when a tenant patches nail holes. It costs me more to fix their botches than if they had let the holes alone.

Tell the landlord that your goal is to have him not losing money on this unit,but a settlement is the only way that you can see this happening. You would rather give him a reasonable,agreed on amount than being forced to not pay anything because he is threatening to sue you. Find a more diplomatic way to say this. Also tell him that you will sing praises of him during the showing,but in exchange,you will need his assurance in writing that a satisfactory lease cancellation was reached and no undesirable information would be reported to any credit reporting agency.

Hope this helps,and good luck.

You could show him this thread --that would demonstrate that you want to do the right thing.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

Dave has some good advice.



We are also landlords for a 4-plex and a home. Actually my wife is, thats why shes in BZ and I'm here in Moron. Since we typically rent to college students who don't have a clue about a lease and are often running into all sorts of problems we are not too strict about the 1 year lease. Talk it over with the landlord and be reaonalble because you could be leaving them in a difficult situation too.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

Actually, as far as leaving it in good shape that shouldn't be a problem. We have only hung up five pictures and they were all with very small brads. We just hadn't gotten anything else done as far as that goes with the unpacking. And I had thought that if we could pay say the next two months rent and plan to be out before the end of December we would be fine. It would stretch us a little thin but I do agree with the fact that I don't want this to be a total loss for them either. Hopefully they will be as reasonable as you guys would be and then things will work out just fine. I guess more than anything I am just worried that they won't be flexible at all.



If anyone has more to add please do.



And thanks to daveshoe & Ol'TrailDog

 

[NVR FNSH]

Make a note of every nail that you drove into the wall to hang a picture. Give this list to the landlord and have him quote the charge to repair them. I hate it when a tenant patches nail holes. It costs me more to fix their botches than if they had let the holes alone.

Picture mounting is not considered normal wear & tear in your area?



Brian

 

[AKAMAC]

Do you have a sub-let exclusion in your contract? If there isn't you can sub-lease to another. The only probable loss would be your deposit. Good luck, Mike

 

[loncray]

I'm also a landlord, and Dave's right. The quicker you let your landlord know so he can get it marketed again, the better. Just moving out is the sure way to a lawsuit. What does your lease say about early breakage? My last tenant lost her subsidy, left my place a mess that my wife and I spent hours cleaning up, then sued us when we kept most of her security deposit. Fortunately, the judge was more swayed by my pictures of damage than my ex-tenant's claims that it wasn't fair. But definitely get the place cleaned up and showable right away. In Germany, tenants had to completely paint the interior of apartments before moving out - not a bad idea but check with your landlord first.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

my wife and I spent hours cleaning up, then sued us when we kept most of her security deposit

We have the understanding from the landlords association that this is a no no if it goes to court, at least in MT. Therefore we have to hire someone else, usually a friend, to clean up the place, keep expense records, and pay out of the deposit.



But then I have confidence this won't apply to Cowboy Medic.

 

[guava]

You need to find a book/sheet/pamphlet on the landlord tennant laws. Usually available at police stations and county buildings. Call around to some of the property management companies. They should have them too.



Too often, landlords are individual property owners who believe they have more rights than they really do. Right now the courthouse pendulum has swung way to the side of the tennant in most states across the country. Where I live, the law specifically states that you can break the lease for basically any reason and you ARE liable for the amount of the rent that the landlord cannot cover in the time it takes him to re-lease the property to the next person. Reasonable delays in time can only be due to cleaning/prepping the unit for leasing. Cuz the landlord is a lazy *** doesn't work. Because you signed a 1 year lease doesn't work. He HAS to try to lease the property.



Find the rule book and show it to him. Then work within the rules.



Hope this helps.



John

 

[ndurbin]

Well as a renter not all are as considerated as the ones that have posted on here. The house we're currently leasing the landlords won't let us out of unless we find somebody to sub-lease or to lease the house. IMO their pretty crappy landlords but we wont get into that.



We usually go rent a steam cleaner for the carpets from like Dillons or wherever and do that ourselves. Our last landlord wanted over $100 to clean the carpets, we rented the machine for about $35 w/ the price of the cleaning solution.



Nathan

 

[Cowboy Medic]

Well, we had a meeting with the apartment managers today. Sounds like they will offer us a decent buyout. One thing that definitely helped is that they only have two open apartments in our whole complex which has over 90 apartments, plus ours is on the top floor in the corner with laundry in the apartment and everything so ours is very marketable for them. We should hear tomorrow or monday on the amount they want. Looking at about 12-15 hundred dollars, which would come out to two months rent on the high end. If so we should be able to cover everything for getting out and for getting into a new place in Vermillion . It will zap the savings but I can refinance my truck and get about 4,000 dollars if I need it for some reason so I think we are ok.

 

[loncray]

I'm glad it worked out for all concerned.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

Just wanted to post a statement on how things worked out. We made a deal with the managers to continue to pay rent until the apartment was rerented or the value of the original buyout was met. Well low and behold the apartment rented right away and so we wound up basically getting out for nothing. Thanks to everyone that chipped in with ideas or experiences. It helped us alot in working through all of this.



Jon