tenant moving out early

[crete]

My tenant is moving out and wants to break the 2 year lease. He has 8 months left. He claims that he is moving to a different state
because of his job. He gave me 30 day notice and he will try to find me a new tenant to replace him. In case he leaves and no new tenant is found what can I do so I won't loose money on the property? Can I make him pay rent until somebody else is found? I just
want to know my options. Chicago

 

[Tyrone]

The reason you have a lease is to protect yourself from exactly like what is happening. He is on the hook for the 8 month balance of the lease term, regardless of the reason for the move, such as his new job. (In fact the new firm may pay him money to cancel the lease.)

Depending on what the lease says he may have the right to sublease (perhaps with your consent) the place for the balance of the lease term. Or you could do a deal with him whereby he would pay you 3 or 4 months rent and you'd let him off the hook. This can be a winner for you and him, as his liability would be capped and you might come out ahead if you could get a new tenant in there quickly. Knowing the Chicago real estate market a bit, I gather rents have gone way up and vacancies are very low. So you should be able to get a new tenant for more than he'd been paying and you could then rent the place on a new lease. If you could re-lease it in only 1 month you'd be ahead the equivalent of several months rent on the breakage fee that he paid you. If you couldn't rent it, however, you'd have lost.

I don't know if Chicago or Illinois has a law that requires that you try to rent it to limit his damages or not. And let's face it if he moves out and you have to sue him it's a hassle. So trying to work something out makes sense.