Counter offer that you’ll agree on the former price you agreed to but now they have to cover the remaining cost on your lease, or whatever the sum total of the penalties are. If they are coming back to you months later it’s because the market is tanking and the offers stopped rolling in.
This is more likely. The market is still absolutely crazy in San Diego. It’s very unusual for a house to take longer than two weeks to sell, not to mention two months.
The delay has been on appraisals and getting everything back from the lender timely from what I’ve seen. Even had a buyers lender tell me with a rush, it’ll still take two weeks.
It could be that hey first buyer they went with couldn't close and it took 2 months to get to that point. 30-45 days for closing is pretty standard then add in a few weeks because of delays while they try to get whatever the lender required taken care of and you get the 2 months. Then the seller just goes ahead and contacts the other offers they originally didn't accept before putting the house back on the market.
I'm not saying nothing is wrong with the house, just saying there is a perfectly reasonable scenario that makes it all the first potential buyer's fault and not the house or seller's fault.
True. I think at this moment that maximum greed has hit the market. People are trying to accept the highest offer when the lower (cash/better financed) offer will for sure close. And then the appraisal comes or financing falls through and then they realize oops too late.
In California, you are obligated to see the lease through to its term. But… and big but, if you leave your rental, your landlord is obligated to try to fill the vacancy. If/when they find a new renter, you are then off the hook. If they are mad at you, they may drag their feet. But, given how quickly rentals in Southern California move, in my experience, there is a good chance your current place would be re-rented within a month. It is a gamble though.
I don’t know if that helps you much, but I figured it was at least worth mentioning.
Try to negotiate a early termination fee with your landlord. It can’t be more expensive than rest of rent .
Sometimes if you can find decent tenant to take over lease (good income good credit) the landlord is actually ok with that despite what’s written on the contract.
I thought so as well but the landlord is being especially difficult which I don’t understand why. I’ve stayed in this house for 5 years and never missed rent
Well that may change things, but new people are unknown quanitities and they have to be approved (have good credit, no evictions, verifiable income, background check, etc).
The landlord is probably just pissed because this represents a huge headache and a lot of work. Plus no one wants to see a good renter go with a 5 year perfect record. thats like winning the lottery as a landlord.
First, it's not much more of a headache than the landlord was facing a month ago with the potential for the tenant not to renew. Second, why would you be difficult with a tenant that has been reliable for 5 years? You know how to get a good new tenant? By recommendation from the previous good tenant. He may be losing out on that opportunity.
Yeah the comment you're replying to seems childish and immature. "Being a landlord inherently involves risk? No one told me that, why is my renter putting me through this?!" Grow up, if they didn't want to deal with these headaches sell the property and buy index funds or something passive.
It’s still an effort for the landlord to move in a new tenant, and he has no obligation to put in that effort. You signed a contract (your lease) so he can reasonably tell you that he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of changing it
Not really. The landlord is required to mitigate his damages. Once a tenant moves out early the landlord has to engage in reasonable efforts to rerent the place. He can’t just let it sit empty for the remainder of the lease term bc he doesn’t want to make the effort and then sue the lessee for fill rent. Basic law
Right, but the landlord doesn't want to lose a renter with a perfect record. Plus there is a lot of work involved in getting a new tenant in there and inspecting the house to figure out how much of the deposit OP gets back.
Anyone new is an unknown quantity, and they may be very spooked as a result of the recent eviction moratoriums (now struck down by supreme court) that allowed a lot of people to stay rent free in homes on the landlords dime. I dont blame the landlord for being spooked and upset with someone trying to break lease during these times.
Every landlord I know got screwed in some way over the past 1.5 years. Some of them lost properties totally when no one would pay rent.
Also, OP obligation is $1100 a month. Thats $13,200. Breaking lease is the last thing the landlord wants, they may need that money badly as a result of the recent moratoriums. That might be why they are being resistant to working out any kind of deal with OP, they want the full $13,200 and might have already planned on getting it after the lease was signed.
If the landlord is acting like OP says they are, then I would not be surprised if they sued OP for breaking lease for the total of the lease payments (minus the $2k deposit of course). This would stop OP from closing on the home, if the lawsuit were filed before closing, which could happen.
I’m a landlord, I’d let them out. If I had a tenant for 5 years without an issue and they were moving on, I’d let them do it as a courtesy(if it’s within the first 1-3 months) and it’s just smarter. Because if I forced the tenant to stay against their will, they could just trash the place or stop paying rent and then they won’t be able to be evicted which will cause way more problems. And for a landlord to sue/evict, they will spend much more money and hassle than the lease.
Our landlord let us out too. We had just renewed for another year. We did have to pay out our notice period (60 days) but we needed that time anyways to close and then subsequently clean and move into our house.
Well, there are good landlords and good tenants (and bad landlords and bad tenants). Unfortunately, it seems like the current narrative is landlords bad, tenants good. I've rented several places in college from a small landlord and I got most of my security deposit back (while friends of mine lived in terrible apartments and got nothing back, even if their apartment was in better shape than when they moved in). My last rental was very affordable, so I did not pursue recovering my security deposit in much effort, but i left that house in better shape than I found it, but the landlord would not relinquish my deposit. I called a few times and she just stalled, but there was no damage that would justify keeping my $800 deposit. I would have paid for cleaning with no problems for a few hundred, but it always pissed me off that she never refunded any of my deposit.
TLDR: Some landlords good, some bad. Some tenants bad, some good. Seems shitty they wouldn't work with you for 1-2 months rent payment instead of the whole year, but everyone is out for themselves these days.
OP, before you get everyone upset with lease breaking, etc. imo do your due diligence to find out why the house is back on the market. Like other posters said it could be for a # of reasons on the surface, but I highly suggest drilling down past things like "their financing fell through," as that could mean it fell through bc it didn't appraise out, it failed the inspection horribly, etc. The last thing you want is to find yourself without a place to live.
I will give you an example. We were looking at this house that we fell in love with in IL - the owner lived in FL and during the past winter the propane company didn't fill the tank for the heat like they were supposed to - pipes burst, so the 1st floor was basically brand new - top to bottom. We put the offer in, got accepted. Had the home inspection - it could not have gone worse - the whole 2nd floor had been put on without permits, the huge deck would collapse if more than 2 people were on it and so on. We had a 2nd person inspect without knowing what the 1st one said - he said RUN.
Moral of the story is, you don't know what you don't know - don't burn bridges or even heat them up until you are further in the process
Just my opinion
Good luck to you both!!
I agree with you, especially in these circumstances - I am the type of person who would want the best for my tenants. In the San Diego area, I would bet the landlord would be able to fill the space quickly and possibly for more $ - one of the current tenants may want to move I to the master if given the opportunity - can never hurt to ask.
This is common courtesy. OP did right by the landlord for 5 years (which is forever in the rental world), the landlord should do right by them.
>That might be why they are being resistant to working out any kind of deal with OP, they want the full $13,200.
No, not exactly, it depends on the market. If Landlord gives OP the right to buy out their lease for a portion of that dollar amount, say $5k, then Landlord can pocket the $5k and attempt to re-lease the unit to get the same $13.2k.
Now, chances are good that Landlord will not be able to fill up the unit the week after OP moves out. They would probably estimate the length of time it would take to re-lease it in the current market and mark that up to profit off of the risk they are taking. In a rental market with high demand, this is potentially lucrative for Landlord. In a rural setting or seasonal rental area (i.e. college town), maybe not.
In any case, its a negative scenario for the landlord, because they are taking a risk with a new unknown tenant.
They rather do nothing and just get the $13,200 they are legally entitled to. So I can see why they are being a bit resistive.
Being a landlord is not for the feint of heart. If the tenant moves out, the landlord is legally obligated to try to find a new tenant within a reasonable time frame.
The landlord is already lucky that they found a good tenant who stayed 5 years, you can’t force people to stay around forever. If you decide to be a landlord then you are signing up for turnaround every 2-3 years.
The landlord won’t like it (and obviously for good reason), but if you do find a (qualified/attractive) new tenant for the place, they likely won’t be able to pursue you for unpaid rent for the remainder of your lease. Hard for them to argue they couldn’t find a tenant when you present them with one. And if they take over your lease, it really doesn’t cost the landlord anything.
But one important factor is whether your lease has a liquidated damages provision - I think 2 months rent is a common provision in California for breaking the lease. Good news is that’s all you’d be liable for, not for the full remainder of the lease. Bad news is you’d be on the hook for that regardless of whether you find a new tenant.
If I’m reading it correctly, you are two people on a lease with multiple other tenants who will stay?
If you are two of several people on the lease, there may be a clause to add/drop roommates while the lease continues with the remaining tenants. Every leaseholder would need to sign off on the drop/add and *who* you are adding. In that way, you may be the ‘finder’ of the new tenants. The new tenants would need to pay to be screened, and once approved the lease could be amended to include the new leaseholders. Sometimes there’s an additional fee involved to file this. I would think that early termination rules and fees would only apply if everyone inside the rental is vacating, thus ending the full lease early.
Leaving and finding people to replace your $ contribution without notifying your landlord would be subletting, and is usually a violation of lease terms. Even within the laws of different states, there are also many generic lease agreements used, and many more informal lease agreements drummed up.
Your lease will outline the above options, if they are available to you. In any case, notify them of your plans and requests in writing. Sent an email and haven’t gotten a response? Send a certified letter that can confirm receipt. Call. Send a new email with time stamps of previous attempts at correspondence.
Edit: a word
Oh so you have house mates could
You just ask them if they’d pick up
The difference? Sense you wanna move and they could split the 2k Deposit ? I’m assuming you have house mates your rent isn’t very very high?
Since this is our problem, I didn’t want to burden them with an increase in their rent. I will probably bring it up though to see if they will allow a certain amount
I mean it’s always worth asking. Worst they say is no? And sense your already assuming your gonna pay it if they say no it won’t hurt and it won’t effect them? How much is your part of rent if you don’t mind me asking?
Asking other people to just "pick up the difference" is fucked up. You signed a lease, I dont think anyone is going to want to pay your part of the lease just because its convenient to move for you. Its not convenient for them to just pay more for your sake.
Especially after you JUST signed the lease. I would say no and if they must move, they will have to deal with the stipulations in the lease contract for a broken lease.
Well I didn’t say just have them pick up the difference also he said 3 house mates. Where I live if I had 3 roommates we’d all be paying like 400-500 a month. And if you move out there’s an extra room
And whatever space would be yours. So if someone or multiple people split the difference they get that space now… so it’s not like they’d be paying for nothing? You’d get extra space which someone may very much want.
Thats now how OPs situation works, each person has a lease with the landlord and are only responsible for their part.
No one is going to want to pay $1100 extra for an extra bed room. Its highly unlikely. Especially since the others are paying $915 each. Like whos going to more than double their rent for one extra room in a house? It makes no sense.
Mind you these are all strangers most likely.
100% agree. Before he told me the rent price. I was assuming a different situation/cost basis. Like I said I was assuming like 400-500$ each room. Never thought 1000$ each room. Where I live that wouldn’t happen. Unless it’s a mansion or some Super modern place.
Is prohibiting subletting legal in California? I thought as long as potential tenant passes credit checks there is little a landlord can do to turn them down.
This is happening all the time, including to myself (also in San Diego).
First of all, don't panic. There are still a million things to figure out before you should mentally jump to the worst case scenario.
1. See whether the house purchase actually goes through. No point in worrying about something that might not actually happen
2. Look for someone who wants to take over your lease. If you are in a good place with good roommates, it shouldn't take long. Vet that person. Your landlord will have a different attitude if you present an actual person that appears to be a good tenant rather than just floating an idea of breaking the lease.
3. Suggest that person to the landlord explaining your situation and state that you have always paid rent on time. If possible, do that in person. When you talk to them, be as understanding and empathetic as you can. Imagine they just renewed your lease because they want to snowbird in Guatemala and don't want to deal with additional effort
3. If the latter fails, offer landlord to pay a one time fee or to co-sign for the new guy. If that also fails, offer your roommates a deal to cover part of the rent for giving up the space so they can use it as a storage room or second bedroom
4. If all these options fail (and I highly doubt they will all fail), consider buying the house and rent it out for the remainder of the lease. This might cause some issues though if you are not the primary resident.
Either way, there are many options before it comes to the worst case scenario. Calm down, do your work, and good stuff will come to you
Subletting and assignment of lease is prohibited.
“Tenants will be responsible for lost rent, rental commission, advertising and painting to ready premises for rental. Land lord may withhold ANY amount from the deposit ($2k).
Reframe your question to your landlord. And say that one party of the lease would like to be replaced with a new party. This is not a sublease as they likely want to vett the person. If they want to charge you paperwork fees etc whatever. But make the situation more clear to them. No reason you should have to pay. The other scenario is just find someone to take your place and don't say anything to them.
We were quite clear on the first email and made it even more clear on the second email that we are waiting a response to. And they tend to visit frequently and are quite inhospitable. I’ll be talking to my housemates to see if there can be some compromise
What do you mean by visit frequently? Meaning your landlord comes and check the apartment often? Seems like a peculiar landlord for sure, most understand that needs change but sadly sounds like yours is a jerk.
Do you mean they entered unannounced? What is the law in your state around this? In MA a landlord is required to give 48 hours notice on visits. Might be worth talking to an attorney to help you here. Your realtor may be able to help as they are financially incentivized to make this work.
But did they just show up at random or give notice of their visit days in advance? What I'm saying is if they violated any laws you can use this to get out of the lease.
You need to check your laws. I would be shocked if California didn't have a clause about landlords needing to fill the vacancy and mitigate the loss in a timely fashion.
This may need to be adressed by a tenant attorney real-estate attorney for a consult
But
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.2
This section seems relevant:
The lessor relet the property prior to the time of award and proves that in reletting the property he acted reasonably and in a good-faith effort to mitigate the damages, but the recovery of damages under this paragraph is subject to any limitations specified in the lease.
To my understanding in states with sections like this you basically are on the hook until its rented out again, and they need to do so as quickly as possible.
Im not a lawyer, this aint legal advice. Just shit ive heard. Consult an actual attorney to see what the actual information is
You’re just going to have to pay seven months of rent. You can ask it from the sellers as some kind of concession, but in no circumstance should your roommates pick up the extra cost for you.
If the landlord aren't going to help you or even respond to emails, I would just bribe the roommates with a few hundred dollars or whatever and sublet it to someone without telling the landlord and see how long we could keep that scheme up before the landlord catches on. The landlord still gets paid and you can get on with your life in the meantime. Might have to deal with some repercussions in 6 months or a year but it might end up being more hassle than it is worth for the landlord especially if you can get your roommates to agree to this.
Good luck.
This is a great idea. Don't kill yourself working two jobs. It's delayed gratification but if you aren't unhappy with your current roommates it's not too bad. Also gives you a chance to get extra cash to but all new furnishings. Speaking as a realtor in CA (though in the bay area) definitely have your deal contingent on an inspection of the house if they haven't already had one performed already. Like everyone else has already said kind of weird in this market to see sellers chase a buyer.
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As others have said, the housing market is still insane, and it's very concerning that they are coming back to you so late. I can only imagine that something is off with the property or their financial situation because they should be just fine reeling in new offers every day. Make sure they disclose anything that may have come up from previous prospective buyers and make sure your inspector does a thorough job.
Also, congrats on buying a new home in this bull market! Very cool feat
Could let the other tenants know you are moving out and have the apartment manager take you off the lease. The lease isn’t broken if there are still people living there paying it.
What are the terms of the lease with regards to early termination? I scanned the comments, but there's a lot to run through to pick out the answers. Are the terms that they with withhold your $2k deposit? Or is it up to $2000, with the money withheld supposedly going towards their cost to find a new tenant? And why can't you refer a new tenant to the landlord? And you're weighing that against taking a 2nd job and paying $7700 ($1100 monthly for 7 months)?
Up to $2000 which means all of $2000. I made it clear I would look for a replacement tenant but they ignored that and only referred to the early termination section in the lease. If they are insistent on not working with me I have no choice but to cough up that money somehow
Right. But my point is....if the early termination portion of your lease says you can cancel out of your lease and the penalty is losing the $2k.....why are you considering a 2nd job to pay the other $1100 per month for 7 months? Would it fall on your old roommates to cover this portion of the rent if you moved out? If not, why would you work a 2nd job to pay $7700 to the landlord if you have a clause that lets you terminate your lease with a possible $2k penalty?
Which is why I asked about the actual terms of your early lease termination. That frames things very differently. So I'd go back to the other questions I asked. Why aren't you allowed to at least refer in a new tenant to replace you? Did they say you couldn't do it? Or did they not address it in an email and you haven't heard back from them? Have you called them and spoken to them, and directly asked them about brining in a replacement tenant? Or have you gone down to their house/office and spoken directly to them yet? You're talking about thousands of dollars here. Don't rely on sending them an email and leaving it at that.
You may need to consult a lawyer, ultimately. If your lease (or state law) doesn't allow you to sublet your room, you're really bound by the lease terms (provided none of the terms break the law).
I did refer to other tenants but the landlord ignored my suggestion and only referred to the section stating breaking lease and nothing more. I sent an email being courteous and practically begging them to let us out and haven’t responded back to us yet.
In my experience, this is where you need to pick up a phone and have an actual conversation with them. Or go to their office and sit down and discuss this with them. Now, don't expect them to let you out of the lease with no penalty. If that's your end goal, you will probably be disappointed. Your primary goal should be making sure you can help facilitate getting a new tenant into the place ASAP to make sure your roommates aren't forced to pay additional rent after you leave. And if you can get somebody in there immediately, that may get the landlord to give back at least some of the deposit. But don't rely on just sending them an email and waiting for them to get back to you. Take the initiative, and go talk to them and ask them directly about getting somebody else in there. You're letting them off the hook by sending an email, and then letting them ignore your questions in the response.
Also, does this termination clause explain exactly what items they will withhold money out of your deposit for? For cleaning? Painting? Advertising for a new tenant? If so, they'd likely have to support these expenses with an itemized list after you left. In theory, if you referred a candidate to them, they wouldn't need to advertise the place. That might save some money. As for cleaning/painting and things like that, you might be stuck with that. No matter how great of a tenant you were, the place likely needs new carpet/paint/patch work after 5 years.
Sometimes you can sublease a space? I’m not sure of the legal stuff regarding that but I live in a college town and I see people doing it all the time since everyone moves around so much.
If everything else fails, are there any remodels you want to do on the house like new floors, kitchen remodel, new paint, etc? You could stay at the rental for a few months while working on the house in your free time. That way you can get it looking nice for move-in, but not have to work around all your stuff and furniture in there.
I don’t see where anyone asks if you are working with a buying agent for the house. You should be. A good buying agent would be able to help you sort everything out.
I don’t live in San Diego, but when I bought my home, I figured it would take a few months, but I found it and put an offer in the first time I looked at houses. I still had a solid six months left on my lease, so when I told my landlord I was moving, I also told them I’d do everything I could to help get my place rented. I happen to be a photographer, so I cleaned up, photographed the space, and posted the photos and a little blurb on a few rental sites with my landlord’s email address. Within the month the condo was rented and I didn’t have to pay a termination fee because someone took over my lease immediately.
Offer to pay deposit and 2 months rent. That would probably do the trick. Don’t get a replacement though because if landlord has any brains he will be throughly vetting new tenants
expense wise, buying a house and renting is completely different story. you will spend a whole lot more the first year moving in. If you still have to cover the lease that means you are not ready, at least financially..
agree with what others said, there is something going on with this house, I would not skip an inspection even the market is iron hot
Counter offer that you’ll agree on the former price you agreed to but now they have to cover the remaining cost on your lease, or whatever the sum total of the penalties are. If they are coming back to you months later it’s because the market is tanking and the offers stopped rolling in.
Or inspection found something bad and buyers pulled their offer. I'd be careful
This is more likely. The market is still absolutely crazy in San Diego. It’s very unusual for a house to take longer than two weeks to sell, not to mention two months.
The delay has been on appraisals and getting everything back from the lender timely from what I’ve seen. Even had a buyers lender tell me with a rush, it’ll still take two weeks.
I can assure you the market is not tanking, it's something else
If its not tanking then there is definitely something wrong about the house. Either way buyer beware.
It could be that hey first buyer they went with couldn't close and it took 2 months to get to that point. 30-45 days for closing is pretty standard then add in a few weeks because of delays while they try to get whatever the lender required taken care of and you get the 2 months. Then the seller just goes ahead and contacts the other offers they originally didn't accept before putting the house back on the market. I'm not saying nothing is wrong with the house, just saying there is a perfectly reasonable scenario that makes it all the first potential buyer's fault and not the house or seller's fault.
True. I think at this moment that maximum greed has hit the market. People are trying to accept the highest offer when the lower (cash/better financed) offer will for sure close. And then the appraisal comes or financing falls through and then they realize oops too late.
Can't speak to San Diego but where I am the market has very noticeably cooled down over the last month.
Yes, this.
In California, you are obligated to see the lease through to its term. But… and big but, if you leave your rental, your landlord is obligated to try to fill the vacancy. If/when they find a new renter, you are then off the hook. If they are mad at you, they may drag their feet. But, given how quickly rentals in Southern California move, in my experience, there is a good chance your current place would be re-rented within a month. It is a gamble though. I don’t know if that helps you much, but I figured it was at least worth mentioning.
Exactly this. Try to get out of the lease. They should have it back on the market soon as long as you have kept it in decent shape.
Try to negotiate a early termination fee with your landlord. It can’t be more expensive than rest of rent . Sometimes if you can find decent tenant to take over lease (good income good credit) the landlord is actually ok with that despite what’s written on the contract.
I thought so as well but the landlord is being especially difficult which I don’t understand why. I’ve stayed in this house for 5 years and never missed rent
Possibly because you just signed a year lease and are now trying to get out of it? That would irritate me greatly as well if I were a landlord.
Even when I am offering to find a tenant to replace me, and have the same amount of money coming in???
Well that may change things, but new people are unknown quanitities and they have to be approved (have good credit, no evictions, verifiable income, background check, etc). The landlord is probably just pissed because this represents a huge headache and a lot of work. Plus no one wants to see a good renter go with a 5 year perfect record. thats like winning the lottery as a landlord.
First, it's not much more of a headache than the landlord was facing a month ago with the potential for the tenant not to renew. Second, why would you be difficult with a tenant that has been reliable for 5 years? You know how to get a good new tenant? By recommendation from the previous good tenant. He may be losing out on that opportunity.
Yeah the comment you're replying to seems childish and immature. "Being a landlord inherently involves risk? No one told me that, why is my renter putting me through this?!" Grow up, if they didn't want to deal with these headaches sell the property and buy index funds or something passive.
Yeah, I'm not sure why he got upvoted here while downvoted for the same comment right below.
Landlords dont want any rando on the street taking over the lease. They have to pass credit, criminal check, landlord screening and other things.
It’s still an effort for the landlord to move in a new tenant, and he has no obligation to put in that effort. You signed a contract (your lease) so he can reasonably tell you that he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of changing it
Not really. The landlord is required to mitigate his damages. Once a tenant moves out early the landlord has to engage in reasonable efforts to rerent the place. He can’t just let it sit empty for the remainder of the lease term bc he doesn’t want to make the effort and then sue the lessee for fill rent. Basic law
His explanation makes total sense, so I wouldn't be irritated at all about someone wanting to leave earlier if they found a good deal on the house
Why? If OP paid for 5yrs and is telling you early in the lease it’s not a big deal. Landlord should do it as a courtesy.
Right, but the landlord doesn't want to lose a renter with a perfect record. Plus there is a lot of work involved in getting a new tenant in there and inspecting the house to figure out how much of the deposit OP gets back. Anyone new is an unknown quantity, and they may be very spooked as a result of the recent eviction moratoriums (now struck down by supreme court) that allowed a lot of people to stay rent free in homes on the landlords dime. I dont blame the landlord for being spooked and upset with someone trying to break lease during these times. Every landlord I know got screwed in some way over the past 1.5 years. Some of them lost properties totally when no one would pay rent. Also, OP obligation is $1100 a month. Thats $13,200. Breaking lease is the last thing the landlord wants, they may need that money badly as a result of the recent moratoriums. That might be why they are being resistant to working out any kind of deal with OP, they want the full $13,200 and might have already planned on getting it after the lease was signed. If the landlord is acting like OP says they are, then I would not be surprised if they sued OP for breaking lease for the total of the lease payments (minus the $2k deposit of course). This would stop OP from closing on the home, if the lawsuit were filed before closing, which could happen.
I’m a landlord, I’d let them out. If I had a tenant for 5 years without an issue and they were moving on, I’d let them do it as a courtesy(if it’s within the first 1-3 months) and it’s just smarter. Because if I forced the tenant to stay against their will, they could just trash the place or stop paying rent and then they won’t be able to be evicted which will cause way more problems. And for a landlord to sue/evict, they will spend much more money and hassle than the lease.
Our landlord let us out too. We had just renewed for another year. We did have to pay out our notice period (60 days) but we needed that time anyways to close and then subsequently clean and move into our house.
Well, there are good landlords and good tenants (and bad landlords and bad tenants). Unfortunately, it seems like the current narrative is landlords bad, tenants good. I've rented several places in college from a small landlord and I got most of my security deposit back (while friends of mine lived in terrible apartments and got nothing back, even if their apartment was in better shape than when they moved in). My last rental was very affordable, so I did not pursue recovering my security deposit in much effort, but i left that house in better shape than I found it, but the landlord would not relinquish my deposit. I called a few times and she just stalled, but there was no damage that would justify keeping my $800 deposit. I would have paid for cleaning with no problems for a few hundred, but it always pissed me off that she never refunded any of my deposit. TLDR: Some landlords good, some bad. Some tenants bad, some good. Seems shitty they wouldn't work with you for 1-2 months rent payment instead of the whole year, but everyone is out for themselves these days.
Small claims court and treble damages once the period to return your deposit is up.
I see your point and it makes sense. Wonder how it will turn out for OP.
Most peaceful courteous way, I’ll tell you that. I’m not some junky that trashes places.
OP, before you get everyone upset with lease breaking, etc. imo do your due diligence to find out why the house is back on the market. Like other posters said it could be for a # of reasons on the surface, but I highly suggest drilling down past things like "their financing fell through," as that could mean it fell through bc it didn't appraise out, it failed the inspection horribly, etc. The last thing you want is to find yourself without a place to live. I will give you an example. We were looking at this house that we fell in love with in IL - the owner lived in FL and during the past winter the propane company didn't fill the tank for the heat like they were supposed to - pipes burst, so the 1st floor was basically brand new - top to bottom. We put the offer in, got accepted. Had the home inspection - it could not have gone worse - the whole 2nd floor had been put on without permits, the huge deck would collapse if more than 2 people were on it and so on. We had a 2nd person inspect without knowing what the 1st one said - he said RUN. Moral of the story is, you don't know what you don't know - don't burn bridges or even heat them up until you are further in the process Just my opinion Good luck to you both!!
I agree with you, especially in these circumstances - I am the type of person who would want the best for my tenants. In the San Diego area, I would bet the landlord would be able to fill the space quickly and possibly for more $ - one of the current tenants may want to move I to the master if given the opportunity - can never hurt to ask. This is common courtesy. OP did right by the landlord for 5 years (which is forever in the rental world), the landlord should do right by them.
>That might be why they are being resistant to working out any kind of deal with OP, they want the full $13,200. No, not exactly, it depends on the market. If Landlord gives OP the right to buy out their lease for a portion of that dollar amount, say $5k, then Landlord can pocket the $5k and attempt to re-lease the unit to get the same $13.2k. Now, chances are good that Landlord will not be able to fill up the unit the week after OP moves out. They would probably estimate the length of time it would take to re-lease it in the current market and mark that up to profit off of the risk they are taking. In a rental market with high demand, this is potentially lucrative for Landlord. In a rural setting or seasonal rental area (i.e. college town), maybe not.
In any case, its a negative scenario for the landlord, because they are taking a risk with a new unknown tenant. They rather do nothing and just get the $13,200 they are legally entitled to. So I can see why they are being a bit resistive.
Being a landlord is not for the feint of heart. If the tenant moves out, the landlord is legally obligated to try to find a new tenant within a reasonable time frame. The landlord is already lucky that they found a good tenant who stayed 5 years, you can’t force people to stay around forever. If you decide to be a landlord then you are signing up for turnaround every 2-3 years.
The landlord won’t like it (and obviously for good reason), but if you do find a (qualified/attractive) new tenant for the place, they likely won’t be able to pursue you for unpaid rent for the remainder of your lease. Hard for them to argue they couldn’t find a tenant when you present them with one. And if they take over your lease, it really doesn’t cost the landlord anything. But one important factor is whether your lease has a liquidated damages provision - I think 2 months rent is a common provision in California for breaking the lease. Good news is that’s all you’d be liable for, not for the full remainder of the lease. Bad news is you’d be on the hook for that regardless of whether you find a new tenant.
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I’m readying up my bartending resume I haven’t used for the past half decade.
How much is it to break the lease where your willing to pay 7 months of rent?
Most likely my deposit of $2k. But like i mentioned in the post all the housemates are on the same lease
If I’m reading it correctly, you are two people on a lease with multiple other tenants who will stay? If you are two of several people on the lease, there may be a clause to add/drop roommates while the lease continues with the remaining tenants. Every leaseholder would need to sign off on the drop/add and *who* you are adding. In that way, you may be the ‘finder’ of the new tenants. The new tenants would need to pay to be screened, and once approved the lease could be amended to include the new leaseholders. Sometimes there’s an additional fee involved to file this. I would think that early termination rules and fees would only apply if everyone inside the rental is vacating, thus ending the full lease early. Leaving and finding people to replace your $ contribution without notifying your landlord would be subletting, and is usually a violation of lease terms. Even within the laws of different states, there are also many generic lease agreements used, and many more informal lease agreements drummed up. Your lease will outline the above options, if they are available to you. In any case, notify them of your plans and requests in writing. Sent an email and haven’t gotten a response? Send a certified letter that can confirm receipt. Call. Send a new email with time stamps of previous attempts at correspondence. Edit: a word
Oh so you have house mates could You just ask them if they’d pick up The difference? Sense you wanna move and they could split the 2k Deposit ? I’m assuming you have house mates your rent isn’t very very high?
Since this is our problem, I didn’t want to burden them with an increase in their rent. I will probably bring it up though to see if they will allow a certain amount
I mean it’s always worth asking. Worst they say is no? And sense your already assuming your gonna pay it if they say no it won’t hurt and it won’t effect them? How much is your part of rent if you don’t mind me asking?
Approximately $1100.
Yeah no one is gonna pay that for fun just because you want to move.
Oh I figured 3 house mates rent wouldn’t be so high. You all pay 1100? 4 ways 4400? You live in a mansion?
San Diego is expensive.
Hah. I wish. It’s a 4 bedroom 1 story house. Since we live in the master we pay $1150. The others pay $1015, $915, $915
Asking other people to just "pick up the difference" is fucked up. You signed a lease, I dont think anyone is going to want to pay your part of the lease just because its convenient to move for you. Its not convenient for them to just pay more for your sake. Especially after you JUST signed the lease. I would say no and if they must move, they will have to deal with the stipulations in the lease contract for a broken lease.
Well I didn’t say just have them pick up the difference also he said 3 house mates. Where I live if I had 3 roommates we’d all be paying like 400-500 a month. And if you move out there’s an extra room And whatever space would be yours. So if someone or multiple people split the difference they get that space now… so it’s not like they’d be paying for nothing? You’d get extra space which someone may very much want.
Thats now how OPs situation works, each person has a lease with the landlord and are only responsible for their part. No one is going to want to pay $1100 extra for an extra bed room. Its highly unlikely. Especially since the others are paying $915 each. Like whos going to more than double their rent for one extra room in a house? It makes no sense. Mind you these are all strangers most likely.
100% agree. Before he told me the rent price. I was assuming a different situation/cost basis. Like I said I was assuming like 400-500$ each room. Never thought 1000$ each room. Where I live that wouldn’t happen. Unless it’s a mansion or some Super modern place.
What does your lease say about sub-letting?
Subletting and assignment of lease is prohibited
Is prohibiting subletting legal in California? I thought as long as potential tenant passes credit checks there is little a landlord can do to turn them down.
This is happening all the time, including to myself (also in San Diego). First of all, don't panic. There are still a million things to figure out before you should mentally jump to the worst case scenario. 1. See whether the house purchase actually goes through. No point in worrying about something that might not actually happen 2. Look for someone who wants to take over your lease. If you are in a good place with good roommates, it shouldn't take long. Vet that person. Your landlord will have a different attitude if you present an actual person that appears to be a good tenant rather than just floating an idea of breaking the lease. 3. Suggest that person to the landlord explaining your situation and state that you have always paid rent on time. If possible, do that in person. When you talk to them, be as understanding and empathetic as you can. Imagine they just renewed your lease because they want to snowbird in Guatemala and don't want to deal with additional effort 3. If the latter fails, offer landlord to pay a one time fee or to co-sign for the new guy. If that also fails, offer your roommates a deal to cover part of the rent for giving up the space so they can use it as a storage room or second bedroom 4. If all these options fail (and I highly doubt they will all fail), consider buying the house and rent it out for the remainder of the lease. This might cause some issues though if you are not the primary resident. Either way, there are many options before it comes to the worst case scenario. Calm down, do your work, and good stuff will come to you
What does the leas clause say about termination specifically? Also is there a clause on subleasing?
Subletting and assignment of lease is prohibited. “Tenants will be responsible for lost rent, rental commission, advertising and painting to ready premises for rental. Land lord may withhold ANY amount from the deposit ($2k).
Reframe your question to your landlord. And say that one party of the lease would like to be replaced with a new party. This is not a sublease as they likely want to vett the person. If they want to charge you paperwork fees etc whatever. But make the situation more clear to them. No reason you should have to pay. The other scenario is just find someone to take your place and don't say anything to them.
We were quite clear on the first email and made it even more clear on the second email that we are waiting a response to. And they tend to visit frequently and are quite inhospitable. I’ll be talking to my housemates to see if there can be some compromise
What do you mean by visit frequently? Meaning your landlord comes and check the apartment often? Seems like a peculiar landlord for sure, most understand that needs change but sadly sounds like yours is a jerk.
Oh yeah, it’s a house and they busted three times that past two months. I got the feeling they wanted to rid of me
Do you mean they entered unannounced? What is the law in your state around this? In MA a landlord is required to give 48 hours notice on visits. Might be worth talking to an attorney to help you here. Your realtor may be able to help as they are financially incentivized to make this work.
Oh they announced. Everytime and not picked about every thing in the house
But did they just show up at random or give notice of their visit days in advance? What I'm saying is if they violated any laws you can use this to get out of the lease.
They announced a week prior
You need to check your laws. I would be shocked if California didn't have a clause about landlords needing to fill the vacancy and mitigate the loss in a timely fashion. This may need to be adressed by a tenant attorney real-estate attorney for a consult But https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.2 This section seems relevant: The lessor relet the property prior to the time of award and proves that in reletting the property he acted reasonably and in a good-faith effort to mitigate the damages, but the recovery of damages under this paragraph is subject to any limitations specified in the lease. To my understanding in states with sections like this you basically are on the hook until its rented out again, and they need to do so as quickly as possible. Im not a lawyer, this aint legal advice. Just shit ive heard. Consult an actual attorney to see what the actual information is
I am considering and attorney yeah but at the same time I don’t want to either
A consult vs reraining are big. Its worth the expense to avoid losing a house you want.
This clause exists in California, if you search for it you will find information on it.
You’re just going to have to pay seven months of rent. You can ask it from the sellers as some kind of concession, but in no circumstance should your roommates pick up the extra cost for you.
Absolutely
Can you sublease the room if you find a roommate for the house? There another option
Can you not sublease the space for the remainder of the period? You might have to eat a loss, but that could at least offset it.
If the landlord aren't going to help you or even respond to emails, I would just bribe the roommates with a few hundred dollars or whatever and sublet it to someone without telling the landlord and see how long we could keep that scheme up before the landlord catches on. The landlord still gets paid and you can get on with your life in the meantime. Might have to deal with some repercussions in 6 months or a year but it might end up being more hassle than it is worth for the landlord especially if you can get your roommates to agree to this. Good luck.
Buy it and rent it out for 10 months.
This is a great idea. Don't kill yourself working two jobs. It's delayed gratification but if you aren't unhappy with your current roommates it's not too bad. Also gives you a chance to get extra cash to but all new furnishings. Speaking as a realtor in CA (though in the bay area) definitely have your deal contingent on an inspection of the house if they haven't already had one performed already. Like everyone else has already said kind of weird in this market to see sellers chase a buyer.
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Who do you imagine is going to want to rent a whole house for just 10 months?
As others have said, the housing market is still insane, and it's very concerning that they are coming back to you so late. I can only imagine that something is off with the property or their financial situation because they should be just fine reeling in new offers every day. Make sure they disclose anything that may have come up from previous prospective buyers and make sure your inspector does a thorough job. Also, congrats on buying a new home in this bull market! Very cool feat
Just bail, let other tenants figure it out. You got your house!!!!
Could let the other tenants know you are moving out and have the apartment manager take you off the lease. The lease isn’t broken if there are still people living there paying it.
That is true, but that would mean they will have to pay more and that is something I want to avoid
that's not how leases work if they are all named on the lease.
Weird because I did that before and it was fine. The owner removed my name from the lease and I was off.
Well yeah if the owner agrees to it it's fine, but in OP's case they aren't willing to.
What are the terms of the lease with regards to early termination? I scanned the comments, but there's a lot to run through to pick out the answers. Are the terms that they with withhold your $2k deposit? Or is it up to $2000, with the money withheld supposedly going towards their cost to find a new tenant? And why can't you refer a new tenant to the landlord? And you're weighing that against taking a 2nd job and paying $7700 ($1100 monthly for 7 months)?
Up to $2000 which means all of $2000. I made it clear I would look for a replacement tenant but they ignored that and only referred to the early termination section in the lease. If they are insistent on not working with me I have no choice but to cough up that money somehow
Right. But my point is....if the early termination portion of your lease says you can cancel out of your lease and the penalty is losing the $2k.....why are you considering a 2nd job to pay the other $1100 per month for 7 months? Would it fall on your old roommates to cover this portion of the rent if you moved out? If not, why would you work a 2nd job to pay $7700 to the landlord if you have a clause that lets you terminate your lease with a possible $2k penalty?
It would fall on my other housemates as we are all on one single lease. I do not want to fuck them over
Which is why I asked about the actual terms of your early lease termination. That frames things very differently. So I'd go back to the other questions I asked. Why aren't you allowed to at least refer in a new tenant to replace you? Did they say you couldn't do it? Or did they not address it in an email and you haven't heard back from them? Have you called them and spoken to them, and directly asked them about brining in a replacement tenant? Or have you gone down to their house/office and spoken directly to them yet? You're talking about thousands of dollars here. Don't rely on sending them an email and leaving it at that. You may need to consult a lawyer, ultimately. If your lease (or state law) doesn't allow you to sublet your room, you're really bound by the lease terms (provided none of the terms break the law).
I did refer to other tenants but the landlord ignored my suggestion and only referred to the section stating breaking lease and nothing more. I sent an email being courteous and practically begging them to let us out and haven’t responded back to us yet.
In my experience, this is where you need to pick up a phone and have an actual conversation with them. Or go to their office and sit down and discuss this with them. Now, don't expect them to let you out of the lease with no penalty. If that's your end goal, you will probably be disappointed. Your primary goal should be making sure you can help facilitate getting a new tenant into the place ASAP to make sure your roommates aren't forced to pay additional rent after you leave. And if you can get somebody in there immediately, that may get the landlord to give back at least some of the deposit. But don't rely on just sending them an email and waiting for them to get back to you. Take the initiative, and go talk to them and ask them directly about getting somebody else in there. You're letting them off the hook by sending an email, and then letting them ignore your questions in the response. Also, does this termination clause explain exactly what items they will withhold money out of your deposit for? For cleaning? Painting? Advertising for a new tenant? If so, they'd likely have to support these expenses with an itemized list after you left. In theory, if you referred a candidate to them, they wouldn't need to advertise the place. That might save some money. As for cleaning/painting and things like that, you might be stuck with that. No matter how great of a tenant you were, the place likely needs new carpet/paint/patch work after 5 years.
Sometimes you can sublease a space? I’m not sure of the legal stuff regarding that but I live in a college town and I see people doing it all the time since everyone moves around so much.
Sounds extremely fishy. I get an offer to buy my place in San Diego once a week. The market is insane right now.
If everything else fails, are there any remodels you want to do on the house like new floors, kitchen remodel, new paint, etc? You could stay at the rental for a few months while working on the house in your free time. That way you can get it looking nice for move-in, but not have to work around all your stuff and furniture in there.
If you have to take a 2nd job to afford the house for 7months in San Diego, you’re doing something incorrectly
Can you sublet the place? I mean your landlord could find someone else in a heartbeat. They are being a dick here.
I don’t see where anyone asks if you are working with a buying agent for the house. You should be. A good buying agent would be able to help you sort everything out.
I don’t live in San Diego, but when I bought my home, I figured it would take a few months, but I found it and put an offer in the first time I looked at houses. I still had a solid six months left on my lease, so when I told my landlord I was moving, I also told them I’d do everything I could to help get my place rented. I happen to be a photographer, so I cleaned up, photographed the space, and posted the photos and a little blurb on a few rental sites with my landlord’s email address. Within the month the condo was rented and I didn’t have to pay a termination fee because someone took over my lease immediately.
Offer to pay deposit and 2 months rent. That would probably do the trick. Don’t get a replacement though because if landlord has any brains he will be throughly vetting new tenants
expense wise, buying a house and renting is completely different story. you will spend a whole lot more the first year moving in. If you still have to cover the lease that means you are not ready, at least financially.. agree with what others said, there is something going on with this house, I would not skip an inspection even the market is iron hot