NEED TO BREAK LEASE..HELP

[bottledthoughts]

I need some advice. I am trying to move into another property. I currently have a lease at an apartment complex, that ends May 30, 2001. I was planning on giving a 30 day notice January 30. Move out date to be February 28. When i approached the office with this, they told me i still had to pay a $705.00 "termination fee" to break the lease. Effectively, and it states in the lease, that this "termination fee" is "a month and a half rent" My question to them was, if i give a 30 day notice, and they have no problem re-renting, would i still be charged the "fee" I was told yes., that this was "buying my way out of the lease"
I was under the impression that in North Carolina (my state) , that a landlord couldn't charge "double rent" for the same property. I asked them what the point in me giving a notice was, and they said if i didn't give a notice, they would charge me for March as well!!
This is really making me angry, it sounds like extortion!! Ive been an excellent tenant, never late, never complain..
help!!
thanks Lisa

 

[JETX]

Though I believe you are correct in that a landlord in NC cannot collect 'double rent', that is not the same thing as charging an 'early termination fee'. That is why your lease is worded that way... so that it is not a double rent situation.

As I see it, here are your options:
1) Fulfill the full term of your lease, remember to give a 30 day notice on 5/1/01.

2) Breach your lease and pay the costs of this breach.

Try to look at it from the other side...
You have a signed lease agreement from a tenant who has agreed to live in YOUR property until 5/30/01. Additionally, the lease clearly says that, in the event of breach, the tenant will pay you a 'fee' equal to 1 1/2 times the monthly rental (this is NOT the same as 1 1/2 months rent). Now, the tenant wants to move out early. Would you forego the allowed 'early out fee'??? I wouldn't think so.

 

[LL]

While I don't know anything at all about NC law, or how they do things there, you should think of the termination fee in a different way.

You promised the LL an income stream of rent for a year (or whatever)and in reliance on that promise, he made you a deal (took you over other applicants, calculated how much rent, whatever). Now you want to break that agreement, and further, you expect him to go out and work to get another tenant to replace you. That's what the early termination fee is for: to reimburse him for expenses and effort in keeping up the income stream that you had promised.

He has probably signed you up to a fixed amount to compensate for whatever he has to do, instead of billing you for each expense and effort individually (sometimes called a liquidated damages clause): advertising, his time to show the apartment, tenant-screening fees, auto expense, fix-up costs due to wear and tear, if he painted for you then he shouldn't have to pay again to paint for the tenant who will fill out the remainder of your lease, extra paperwork, etc.

If you think that the cost of $705 is unreasonable, that may be a different story. Remember that this is an average, averaged over all tenants, not just you, and includes the expenses he has from bad tenants as well as good ones. I have heard of judges allowing the cost of extra wear and tear on the stairs for an extra move-in. In my own apartments, I bill the tenant for individual expenses associated with an early termination, rather than relying on a liquidated damages approach.

 

[JETX]

Younglsm....
Good post.

Thank you.