TenantNet Forum

Where tenants can seek help and help others



Breaking Lease for $$ Reasons;Need to Return to Home Country

Moderator: TenantNet

Breaking Lease for $$ Reasons;Need to Return to Home Country

Postby Caterpillar » Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:23 pm

Hi,

I am looking for advice on breaking the lease on my 3-bedroom house and assigning it to someone else. My husband and I are having serious trouble paying rent: we borrowed money to pay for June and for August (and haven't paid this back yet), and for the first time ever had to pay our September rent a week late. Basically, we can't afford to continue living here. Our lease ends in August 2011, and we paid our LL the damage deposit (monthly rent & $25) and the last two months rent (i.e., June and July 2011).

My family and I (husband and son) live in upstate New York in a town where leases usually run August-August, although it's standard practice for leases to be renewed in late February/early March. We renewed our lease in early March '10 for Aug '10-Aug '11. Unfortunately, by May 2010 we had started having serious financial difficulties: I am a student, and my husband was having a lot of trouble finding any work whatsoever in our area, let alone work that would pay enough for us to afford to stay in our house. Damn recession :( We decided that the best thing would be for us to move: I am a European citizen in the US as a student, and my husband is Canadian, in the US as a dependent. We hoped to move back to Canada, where we would have more chance of getting work. While we knew we would be breaking our lease, having had to sign for 2010-2011 so far in advance, we hoped our LL would be understanding, given our circumstances (who wants tenants who can't pay the rent?), given that we have been model tenants so far, and given that we were giving him so much notice. He wasn't understanding in the slightest.

We thought we'd be able to make it work but that's getting less and less likely (hence us having to borrow money twice for over the summer for our rent). Now we're getting desperate, and trying to do everything we can to leave. We live in a university town, so we would be most likely to find someone to take over our lease in January rather than earlier. Our LL will not be pleased, and will most likely make things as difficult as possible.

Here are my questions:

1. When we first discussed this issue with our LL in May, he said that if we broke the lease, even if he or we found someone to assign it to, he would require us to pay every month of the lease before we left. I know we are liable for the remaining term of the lease but is this the case even if the lease is assigned to someone else? And is he legally entitled to ask for that money in advance? Quite simply, we couldn't pay it.

2. If we try to assign the lease, would we be better to try to find a new tenant ourselves and then tell the landlord (as advised in this link: http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4933) or should we tell the landlord and then help him look for a new tenant? (I worry that if we do the former and he finds out, he'll be angry and will make things worse.)

3. Is there any way we can do this without losing our damage deposit and the final two months' rent? (He has approx. $3,500 of ours.) I worry that if we leave the country and he still has this money--particularly if he's entitled to keep it until June and July 2011--then we'll never see it again.

One last thing: if we can't work out how to do this without losing that $3,500, we may well have to stay. However, because of finances and my current health status, I may end up not being able to stay enrolled at the university, in which case I'd have to leave the country anyway because of my visa status... so we end up in a bit of a Catch-22.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Caterpillar
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:59 pm

Postby ronin » Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:17 am

1. Your LL really has no leg to stand on against people leaving the country. He is an idiot. You can immediately stop paying rent. Any court action against you will take longer than the two months rent in deposit. And then you leave.

There is no full faith and credit in a foreign country. The judgment here is worthless to the LL because your accounts won't be in the US any more. This holds true unless you decide to come back and open up a US bank account.

2. Why bother if the idiot LL won't work with you. See 1 above.

3. Forget Catch-22. See 1 above. Just stop paying rent and you'll get your deposit back (living off the deposit). Or stay a few more months for free. You're getting ready to leave the country and the idiot LL won't work with you. Show him the folly of his ways.
ronin
 
Posts: 419
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 2:01 am

Postby ronin » Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:21 am

On second thought, there is one thing to check first. Although US law won't reach you in a foreign country, the LL may decide to sue you in your home country if they allow it. That would be expensive and probably won't happen unless you rack up a fortune in charges. So don't overdue it! :shock:
ronin
 
Posts: 419
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 2:01 am


Return to NYS General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests