Bought a house! Can we break the lease?

We have a lease through May 2001, and we put a bid in on a house. They accepted our offer and we want to move!(obviously!)The closing is set for 12/30/00, so we don't have much time. Do we have a "legal out"of our rental lease or is it up to the landlord to let us out of the lease? We are in NY state.

[This message has been edited by DeeJay (edited November 01, 2000).]

Some leases contain a "buy-out" clause where in exchange for a specified amount of money you can get out of the lease so check your lease.

If you do not have this clause you are liable for the rent until 5/2001 or until the L re-rents to the property.

You may want to assist L in re-renting it i.e. paying for advertising, helping L show unit etc...

Why would you sign a year lease if you were intending to buy a home? Obviously, you were not intending to buy a home when you signed the lease, yah, yah, I got it.

I am not an attorney, but if it makes you feel any better about accepting my advice, I was voted the snow-week king in highschool and my twin-brother was the home-coming king.
Also, I won athlete of the week once and once I pinned 3-people in a wrestling tournament in a combined time of 2 minutes 30 seconds. Now if that doesn't add credibility to my advice, I don't know what will. Heeheehee