Breaking a lease?

[Scandia]

Nope, no 3-year lease. Hopefully they won't treat each renewed lease as a brand new thing. And what if I had gotten ill or my family needed me to move back home due to illness of one of them after 3 or so months of having just moved here?

No month of free rent this year. That was last year's lease. But this renewed one included absolutely no freebies or bonuses like that.

The complex always has people waiting at the office hoping to be shown an apartment. It is near a major university (USF)- and although fall term will start soon, I came in a March to get an apartment to move in during July in order to start classes in August for the fall term. So there may be people searching early for an apartment to start school in the spring term.

Hopefully the escape clause will not be more than 2 months rent or the sort (which is still 1200 dollars- owch). And I will be ultra super duper nice to them. But I happened to find this condo now. I cannot pay mortgage AND rent simultaneously simply because the apartment complex is following things to the letter rather than being flexible. And if they rent it to some new tenant, they may be able to charge them even more anyway.

[Scandia]

Well, my family came today.

They liked the condo I talked about. We saw two other complexes, but they did not like them as much.

We did not make the reservation because my mother wants to talk to a friend of hers who is an expert on this.

I hope they do not sell the one I want. They have 4 left of that kind- but the other 3 are not in as good a location as the one I want the most.

My family says that if it is meant to be, it will be mine. However, I am more of a "you control your own destiny" person.

[Kevin]

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. There may be other lease provisions which might come back and get you depending on your local laws. No one from G.C. can really give you an adequate answer on this one without 1) actually reading the lease, and 2) knowing the local landlord-tenant laws.

You also might consider developing an allergy to the carpet.

[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))