Ending your rental lease early
 

I need to move out before my lease is up, so I gave my landlord a notice and he said that I now have to keep paying for that place till he finds a new tenant, which can be a few month really. Is that how it really is ? There is not a word about it in agreement I signed.
What if a person has to move to another country? Then what? Not my case, but I'd like to know.

im you signed a yearly lease then yea you supposed to pay till the end of that rental year you have, but if its month to month then you can leave end of the month I believe

did you use the RTA forms?

source: Ending a Tenancy : RTB : Government of British Columbia

Yeah I did. Oh well, now I know. Just wanted to make sure his moves were legit. Thanks for the info

So they'll go to collectors if I just get lost right? How much will that affect me?

not too sure about the legality of things. but dinosaur and gridlock may have a better idea. they tend to be quite active on RTA stuff. should probably shoot them a PM.

Your landlord, to be blunt, is right.

When a tenant signs a specific term lease, he or she 'guarantees' that the rental unit will produce X amount of $ for that duration.

If the tenant gives notice and leaves prior to the end of the fixed-term, he or she is liable for what is called, "Loss of Rental Revenue". This means that any monetary loss until the end of that signed term is the responsibility of the tenant.

If your landlord is unable to re-rent your apartment, whatever their loss is...is your loss. However, your landlord is required to make a concerted effort before you are responsible. They need to advertise, show, consider offers, etc. A landlord can not simply say, "tough shit", sit back and collect money from you.

Also, even if your landlord has been able to re-rent your unit, it may not be for what you were paying (depending on the current rental market). For example, if you were paying $1000 per month and the landlord re-rented to a new tenant for $950 per month, you are obligated to pay $50 per month for the remainder of your lease.

I have had several tenants over the years break lease on me for various reasons. The majority of the time I have had no problem re-renting to unit but there have been situations where there was a $25-50 price drop.

It is a risk that the tenant takes when they sign a lease. You need to read the RTA again and look for the term, "Loss of Rental Revenue". There are a lot of grey areas of the agreement, but this specific situation is iron-clad.

But one of your better options is to see if you know someone that will take over your lease until the end of your agreement? And depending on how much rent was and how many months until the end, from a landlord's POV, it might not be worth it for him/her to go through the RTB hearing, getting an order and then a judgement from the court, only to collect say 2000 from you if they can rent it back out easily.

Having someone take over your lease can be an option, but it in some situations, it isn't

For any fixed-term lease 6 months and under, a tenant is not allowed to sub-lease. If your lease is over 6 months, you need to have written permission to do so. To be honest, there isn't much difference as the 'new' tenant still needs to go through the same vetting process as any other person off the street. Credit, reference, character, etc checks all still need to be preformed.

If you have a fixed-termed lease for over 6 months and provide a GOOD tenant to take over your lease, the landlord can NOT so 'no'.

I have an apartment that has continued to be rented to Korean students. All of them sign one-year leases but always leave every summer....but they always find someone to take it over (usually another Korean student). I have no problem with this. It saves me time trying to find another renter, all have been great tenants, and all have found their own replacements. In this case, it is not worth making a big fuss over the tenant breaking the lease, going to court, collecting money, etc.

In any situation like this, the best thing to do is to talk with your landlord. Try and work with them: allow the landlord to conduct as many showings as needed, keep you place VERY clean and presentable, see if you know anyone wanting to move and provide them with the landlord's contact info, and check-in every so often with the landlord to see if you can do anything to make re-renting easier. Like I said previously, I have had several tenants break lease...the ones that do the above always have their places rented without loss of revenue.

It could be worse. We tax people for breaking lease in the form of liquidated damages. Usually between 200-300. That gets written into the lease at the very beginning.

It gets really annoying when its month 2 or 3 and someone comes to your door and says, "I need to move". You just got them settled in, and into a routine and basically they are saying, "I'm going to make you work again" so we charge them. It gives the lease some teeth.

You have to show the unit, you have to sit there and sign the lease with them. So, multiple showings and a guaranteed hour to sign up the new tenant. The building gets dirty from moving. If I don't tax people, it might as well be a month to month lease.

Provided that you signed a lease (rental tenancy agreement) you are responsible and on the hook to commit for the term signed. This is why leases are signed in the first place. It's a set term at a set price.

You are on the hook if until following happens:
1. You continue to pay for the full rent for however many months is remaining
2. Landlord finds another tenant to replace you. At that point they can spend their reasonable effort and if they still are unable to find someone, you are on the hook.

I suggest for you to take part in this effort at least you can try your hardest to have someone there immediately after you leave (hence minimizing the rent you would have to pay)

They most likely will because you fucked them up by backing out of the agreement and in sense (it's just business) they will do things to protect their interests.

They will have their processes in place and the following can happen

1. It'll be a lengthy process
2. Provided they are successful they will file orders and potentially use debt collectors or they can garnish your future wages.

How does this affect you? If they decide to go further this can ADVERSELY RUIN your credit score.

Good luck in getting any type of loan (auto, line of credit, mortgage) in the future.

^ Yup!

People seem to think that this won't happen because it "takes too much time" and its not worth it. What they don't understand is that this is my job....all I have is time. Its the tenant who is going to have to take time away from their job for the court cases.

Keep that in mind that the liquidated damage can only be reasonable amount. My property manager tried to charge me $3000 for breaking lease 4 months early. And they are suppose to be professional property management company. Needless to say, I told them to fuck off and told them that if they can't find next tenant, they can *try* to go after me for 4 months' rent but I am not paying $3000 penalty that cannot be legally enforced.

Wow, yeah.

Usually ours is in the 200-400 range, leaving some security deposit that you get back.

And it depends on if we enforce it or not. If the place is spotless, and you have been accommodating with us to make the process easy, and we rented the apartment quick then we didn't feel pain, and will drop that charge, either some or completely.

If you are a dick, and have an attitude of "suck it, I'm out" well then, you too can suck it.

On the subject of going after people. I'm currently involved in recovering damages from a tenant. In one year, she burned the brand new living room carpet, 2 doors were off their hinges, and the plumbing was broken in the bathroom. So I sued to keep the deposit and went for an additional $720.

My saving grace was I had her aunt co-sign. After out payment plan didn't come to fruition(she made one payment) I get back on the phone with the aunt. And I told her, "I need to be blunt. None of this money goes to me. Not a dime. But I'm not going away. I have nothing but time, and enough information to be able to hunt y'all down(honestly, I go southern when I'm confrontational) I want the win."

Actually, when I was dicktating the terms of the payment arrangements, I had the tenant say "I don't appreciate your tone" Oh honey, you should see the tone I'm choosing NOT to use.

Some people just get under your skin, and its no longer money, or time, you just want to go Moby Dick on their ass.

well, guess I'll just pay when I am asked to do so, it is what it is. Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated

So right now, I haven't signed any updated leases and I'm in the third year of living at my current address. I've been giving the landlord 3 cheques at a time so it'd be more flexible for me to move when needed. So for example, it's already 1.5 weeks into the month, can I give the landlord 30 days notice from today and pay them 1.5 weeks into the next month?

No.

Even if you had moved in mid-month (15th), the branch views 'one month's notice' or 30-day notice in proper months.

You notice must be in by the day before the 1st of the month. Example: you want to move at the end of March...notice would have had to been in by Feb 28th.