What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
I recently had to break my lease. I gave 45 days notice by email and 30 days by certified mail. I tried to find another renter on Craigslist and through several other sites - to no avail. I have proof that I made a good faith effort to try to rent it for the entire remainder of my term and beyond.
The lease ended on January 31st. I originally intended to vacate the property on Dec. 15th but paid for the full month of December, explaining that if the landlord was able to re-rent the property, I knew I would be entitled to a refund for any days in December that it was rented.
After I gave notice, the LL made it clear that if I could not find another renter, she would hold me responsible for the rent for the month of January. So I contacted her the following day and told her that I would go ahead and stay for the entire month of January if I would be paying for it. She then told me that she had already rented the unit on Airbnb for 3 days from Dec. 30 - Jan. 2 (Note: I had already paid for the entire month of December). She was saying that if I now wanted to stay for the month of January, that I would need to move out for those three days and then move back in after the other renters were gone. At that point, I explained that moving out and back in was not feasible, and that I would move out on Dec. 29th but that I would not be returning. I also told her that she could keep the two days of rent that I had already paid for the month of December and put it towards cleaning of the apartment for the new tenants.
Wrote to the LL the other day to ask about the security deposit (it is past the 21-day period as required by law). The LL is now telling me that since she only brought in one-third of the monthly rent via two short Airbnb rentals, she is keeping my security deposit to cover the remaining two-thirds of the January rent. I should also add that she included "non-refundable" portions of the security deposit (for a pet fee and cleaning fee), and as I mentioned, she did not contact me with an inventory of deductions within 21 days of our vacating the premises.
I plan to take her to Small Claims Court and argue that, beyond the fact that she did not comply with the 21-day rule, our responsibility for the rent ended when the unit was re-rented on December 30, and that she alone chose to rent the unit on Airbnb and to set a 3-day minimum rather than a 30-day minimum rental term. If she had re-rented the unit for the whole month, it would have been an open and shut case, but since she chose to rent for these shorter rental terms, it gets complicated. Does anyone know if there are any precedents that have been set on this issue?
P.S. Even if the judge does agree with her that I should be held responsible for any difference in rent between what I would have owed and what she brought in, I have screenshots of the Airbnb calendar showing that the unit was "unavailable" for many more days in January than she is saying she rented it on Airbnb. It's therefore very feasible that she could have rented it to her friends or family or through Craigslist or VRBO on those other days in January, and she simply isn't telling me about those rental fees. When I told her that I had screenshots showing that the unit was unavailable for most of January, she said that was because she was out of town a lot in January, so she took it off the market for those days since she couldn't be there to hand over keys with the Airbnb tenants (despite the fact that there is an entire cottage industry here in CA of companies that will manage Airbnb rentals -- or there's always a simple lockbox).
Thanks for any advice you can provide.
I recently had to break my lease. I gave 45 days notice by email and 30 days by certified mail. I tried to find another renter on Craigslist and through several other sites - to no avail. I have proof that I made a good faith effort to try to rent it for the entire remainder of my term and beyond.
The lease ended on January 31st. I originally intended to vacate the property on Dec. 15th but paid for the full month of December, explaining that if the landlord was able to re-rent the property, I knew I would be entitled to a refund for any days in December that it was rented.
After I gave notice, the LL made it clear that if I could not find another renter, she would hold me responsible for the rent for the month of January. So I contacted her the following day and told her that I would go ahead and stay for the entire month of January if I would be paying for it. She then told me that she had already rented the unit on Airbnb for 3 days from Dec. 30 - Jan. 2 (Note: I had already paid for the entire month of December). She was saying that if I now wanted to stay for the month of January, that I would need to move out for those three days and then move back in after the other renters were gone. At that point, I explained that moving out and back in was not feasible, and that I would move out on Dec. 29th but that I would not be returning. I also told her that she could keep the two days of rent that I had already paid for the month of December and put it towards cleaning of the apartment for the new tenants.
Wrote to the LL the other day to ask about the security deposit (it is past the 21-day period as required by law). The LL is now telling me that since she only brought in one-third of the monthly rent via two short Airbnb rentals, she is keeping my security deposit to cover the remaining two-thirds of the January rent. I should also add that she included "non-refundable" portions of the security deposit (for a pet fee and cleaning fee), and as I mentioned, she did not contact me with an inventory of deductions within 21 days of our vacating the premises.
I plan to take her to Small Claims Court and argue that, beyond the fact that she did not comply with the 21-day rule, our responsibility for the rent ended when the unit was re-rented on December 30, and that she alone chose to rent the unit on Airbnb and to set a 3-day minimum rather than a 30-day minimum rental term. If she had re-rented the unit for the whole month, it would have been an open and shut case, but since she chose to rent for these shorter rental terms, it gets complicated. Does anyone know if there are any precedents that have been set on this issue?
P.S. Even if the judge does agree with her that I should be held responsible for any difference in rent between what I would have owed and what she brought in, I have screenshots of the Airbnb calendar showing that the unit was "unavailable" for many more days in January than she is saying she rented it on Airbnb. It's therefore very feasible that she could have rented it to her friends or family or through Craigslist or VRBO on those other days in January, and she simply isn't telling me about those rental fees. When I told her that I had screenshots showing that the unit was unavailable for most of January, she said that was because she was out of town a lot in January, so she took it off the market for those days since she couldn't be there to hand over keys with the Airbnb tenants (despite the fact that there is an entire cottage industry here in CA of companies that will manage Airbnb rentals -- or there's always a simple lockbox).
Thanks for any advice you can provide.
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