Breaking a lease?

[valkyrie]

Originally Posted by ktsnake

I'm pretty sure that they can't hold you responsible for the term of the lease. Especially since they likely show and rent apartments quite a bit. There's a duty to mitigate the damages there, and I think you're covered there.

Unfortunately, under FL law, this does not seem to be the case, as indicated by my link above:

83.595 Choice of remedies upon breach by tenant.--

(1) If the tenant breaches the lease for the dwelling unit and the landlord has obtained a writ of possession, or the tenant has surrendered possession of the dwelling unit to the landlord, or the tenant has abandoned the dwelling unit, the landlord may:

(a) Treat the lease as terminated and retake possession for his or her own account, thereby terminating any further liability of the tenant; or

(b) Retake possession of the dwelling unit for the account of the tenant, holding the tenant liable for the difference between rental stipulated to be paid under the lease agreement and what, in good faith, the landlord is able to recover from a reletting; or

(c) Stand by and do nothing, holding the lessee liable for the rent as it comes due.

(2) If the landlord retakes possession of the dwelling unit for the account of the tenant, the landlord has a duty to exercise good faith in attempting to relet the premises....

Thus, if the landlord stands by and does nothing, there is no statutory duty to mitigate damages.

[Kevin]

...good faith in attempting to relet the premises...

-- that's all the duty to mitigate means, right? I'd assume that means that if there's a waiting list to get in, that she'd be off the hook.

I had a terrible prof for property. A little too obsessed with future interests. His reviews on myspace have been telling me that I'll be learning about Property for the first time on the Barbri, so this ain't exactly my best subject.

[valkyrie]

Originally Posted by ktsnake

...good faith in attempting to relet the premises...

-- that's all the duty to mitigate means, right? I'd assume that means that if there's a waiting list to get in, that she'd be off the hook.

I had a terrible prof for property. A little too obsessed with future interests. His reviews on myspace have been telling me that I'll be learning about Property for the first time on the Barbri, so this ain't exactly my best subject.

Yes, but that's only the case if the landlord retakes possession of the unit. It sounds like (1)(c) provides that the landlord can decline to retake possession and do nothing, leaving the tenant on the hook for rent. If there IS a waiting list, of course the landlord would be an idiot to NOT rent the apartment to somebody else. I'd bet that there is no waiting list, though.

I had a great property professor. He'd always talk about property interests as if they were a "bundle of sticks." It was cute.

[Kevin]

I always said my property prof was a few sticks short of a bundle...

(insert laugh track here)

[Scandia]

Things did not work out.

I will have to wait a couple more years in order to afford this.

Thanks for your advice anyway.

[LouisaMay]

Awww...I'm sorry that you ended up disappointed. Your first purchase can be a frustrating process. ((hugs))