Moving into a new place can be a great thing and a fun experience.
You sign a lease thinking that you will stay there for that length of time, or possibly even longer.
Not many people think that they will have to break a lease, so you might not know much about it. I don’t think many people want to break a lease unless there’s nothing else that can be done.
There are many different reasons for why you might need to break a lease:
- You don’t like your neighbors or your landlord. There can be many bad circumstances where your landlord may be absolutely horrible or you may have neighbors who are trying to harm your life. Yes, this happens.
- You found a new job. If you found a new job somewhere else, then you may need to break your lease.
- Medical reasons. If you have a serious medical issue, then you may have to move in with someone to take care of you. I have personally had this happen with a close family member.
Here’s what you need to do if you need to break your lease.
Don’t just disappear.
Whatever you do, do not just lease your rental. You should never just vacate without telling your landlord unless it’s an extremely drastic situation.
Look over your lease.
The first thing you need to do is look over your lease agreement. It will probably say what needs to be done and how much you will owe if you break your lease. The lease agreement will tell you everything you need to know usually about breaking your lease.
Ask if you can sublease.
If you don’t want to lose a lot of money, then you may want to ask your landlord if you can sublease the rental or if you can find a new person for the rental. This way, you may not have to pay the full fee for breaking your lease. However, this isn’t always guaranteed.
Always treat the place like it is yours.
Even though you are leaving, you still need to treat the rental correctly. Leave it clean and tidy, and make sure nothing is broken. Unless you are leaving because of landlord reasons, always be polite to your landlord as well. Keep in mind that your landlord is a person as well and this is the way that they support their family.
Have you ever had to break a lease? What happened?
Image via Flickr by?Jason Dean
