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Bought a house, need to break lease

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moegirl1

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? New York

Hopefully someone can help me. My friend Lisa and I have been renting a 3 bdrm apartment for 3 years. We just bought a house in both our names, the closing date(for now) is sept. 30. Our landlord just sold the house we rent, the closing is mid-october, supposedly. Is there any way to legally break our lease that is up in June, 2006? Wouldn't changing landlords void the lease? I would think the new owner would have to get us to sign a new lease seeing that the wrong landlord will be on our old lease for the next 7 months. My current landlord will not give us the name of the new buyer, so I can't work something out with them. Please help.
Thanks,
Maureen
 


Actually,

when you buy a house you also buy any leases that are in effect at the time of the sale, and the new owner is legally obligated to honor that lease. You said in one place it was an apartment and in another place it's a house. Do you know if it was being marketed as an investment property or is it just a single family house? I'm guessing if your land lord is giving you a hard time they new people probably bought it as a rental and he's afraid they'll freak if they realize they'll be getting into a property with a vacancy on their hands.

I guess to answer your question, the sale of the house in no way impacts your lease unless both parties make an agreement that superseeds it. (The new owner will get your security deposit, by the way.) You'll just have to break your lease and see what happens. With the sale of the property going on it may be too much of a hassle for the current or new owner to "come after you", but it would be within their right to do so. At the very least I wouldn't count on getting your security deposit back.

Good luck,
Karla in Amarillo
P.S. What does your lease say about early termination and/or subleasing. Maybe you can sub-lease or find someone to replace yourself with.
 

longneck

Member
moegirl1 said:
Is there any way to legally break our lease that is up in June, 2006?
if you nicely ask your LL, they may let you out of your lease.
Wouldn't changing landlords void the lease?
nope.
I would think the new owner would have to get us to sign a new lease seeing that the wrong landlord will be on our old lease for the next 7 months.
nope. when a property is sold with a lease in effect, the new owner purchases the responsibility to honor that contract.
My current landlord will not give us the name of the new buyer, so I can't work something out with them.
they don't have to. they don't want their tenants scaring off potential buyers.
 

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