Agreement to terminate lease? Hawaii

[monchichacco]

My husband and I signed a 1 year lease starting June 1st 2008 and would like to terminate our lease. When I first told our landlord, she said she will honor our request to vacate, but she is not obligated to return our security deposit. We understood that and we were prepared for that loss and started to move our belongings to our new home. Then about a week later, we received a letter stating that not only will we lose our security deposit, but we are responsible to pay the rent for the remainder of the lease or until someone else occupies the unit. We were unaware of the Landlord-Tenant law, which she provided a copy of the relevant pages in the letter, as we were not informed of it until then. Also, our rental agreement does not say anything about the code or was it discussed during the lease signing. We feel deceived and do not know what to do because now we will be liable for rent in our current and new place.

Please advise.

 

[CA LL]

A contract is legally binding and it appears the laws in HAWAII back up the landlord's demand and in fact that is "typical" when you break a lease...so yes you will owe rent until the unit is re-rented or the lease expires, whichever comes first.

 

[HuAi]

However, it doesnt appear that you automatically forefit the SD (as long as you pay all rents until apt is rerented)