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Early termination of lease agreement

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gksdlsss

Junior Member
Lithonia GA:confused:

I moved into an apartment on the 8th of August 08 when I accepted a job offer
near by the apartment. After three weeks, I lost my job and I could not afford the
apartment any longer. I asked the management of the apartment(apartment complex was owned by a real estate company) what I should do and they told me to write a letter explaining my situation and leave a forwarding address. They wanted me to pay 2 months rent of early termination fee which I did not have. They said maybe I can arrange something with the company and pay off the 2 months rent. I left the apartment on the 29th of August 08 and did all that the management told me to do. When I moved in, I paid half rent for security deposit. I guess I lost it.
In this case, would I have to pay the whole two months rent? I only lived there for 3 weeks and the apartment is as clean as when I moved in. I'm not a US citizen and I'm not in the US anymore. They said that If I don't pay the two months rent, it will go to my credit report. What can I do?
 


HuAi

Member
Your landlord is being very cooperative, I suggest you take advantage of their generocity. Legally you are responsible for rent for the rest of your lease term or until the landlord finds a new tenant. However, your LL has agreed to let you out for the cost of only 2 months. What you should have done is found a new tenant on craigslist or elsewhere to replace yourself before you moved out. I suggest you take the landlord up on his offer and work out a payment plan to pay back the 2 months of rent.

If you don't do that, landlord can take you to court for back rent. When he wins the judgement he report the debt to credit agencies and it will appear on your credit report. Additionally landlord may be able to garnish your wages in the future or seize bank account assets to collect the money you owe them.
 

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