Breaking The Lease - Help!

[skateny]

I have a rent stabilized apartment and need to break the lease with about 11 months remaining. Under what conditions can the landlord refuse to assign the lease to someone I submit for his approval?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[HardKnocks]

Hi,

I just broke my lease and had no trouble at all. I simply notified the landlord (in March) that due to unfortunate personal circumstances beyond my control, I would have to vacate the premises May 1st (since my security had me paid up until then, I figured I'd take the time I needed to pack). They never even responded, just assigned it to a broker and started sending people over to see the place at the beginng of April. I didn't pay April's rent (as it was covered by security) and they didn't even care about THAT.

My guess is that they were happy to see me go because I was paying around $500 below market value and all they had to do was put in a new stove (which wasn't even needed, but they apparently did it anyway) and refrigerator and they could really jack up the rent.

Anyway, I had about 8 months remaining on my lease when I informed them.

I hope your lease-breaking goes as smoothly!

[jot0n0]

Bleary-eyed is right, most of the time breaking a rent stablized lease shouldn't be a problem especially if your rent is low in comparison to other free market apts in the area. LL will probably be glad you're leaving since he can raise rent on the next tenant 18-20% without doing anything to the apt.