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Tool & guide

How to get out of a lease early, and what it costs

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Your options, priced

What leaving early could cost

Your situation

Cheapest: find a replacement tenant yourself, about $1,800

  • Find a replacement tenant yourself: about $1,800. If the lease allows an assignment or sublet, you pay rent until the new tenant starts. With a sublet you stay responsible if they don’t pay.
  • Leave and let the landlord re-rent: about $1,800. Where the landlord must try to re-rent, you owe the vacant months, plus reasonable advertising costs.
  • Use the early-termination clause: about $3,600. The fee your lease sets. Check whether you also lose the deposit or owe notice.

A letter to start the conversation:

[date]

Dear [landlord],

I’m writing about my lease at [address]. I need to move out before the lease ends, and I’d like to agree an early end date with you.

I can help find a replacement tenant, and I’m open to paying a fair amount to end the lease early. Please let me know what you would accept.

Thank you,
[your name]

Saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere. These are estimates, not legal advice: your lease and your state’s law decide what you owe.

Start with your lease

Dig out the lease and look for two things.

The first is an early-termination clause. Some leases let you leave early for a set fee if you give notice, often a month or two of rent. The second is whether you’re allowed to sublet, or hand the lease to someone else. Those two lines decide most of what happens next.

Ask the landlord for a deal

Most landlords would rather have a date than a fight. Write to them, offer to help find the next tenant, and ask what they’d take to end the lease early.

Get the deal in writing. It should say the end date and what you owe.

Find a replacement tenant

If the lease allows it, an assignment hands the lease to someone new and usually ends your part in it. A sublet is different: you stay on the hook if the subtenant stops paying.

You pay rent until the new person moves in. Speed saves you money.

If you just leave

In most states, a landlord whose tenant leaves early has to make reasonable efforts to re-rent the place. You then owe rent for the months it sat empty, plus reasonable advertising costs.

Say your rent is $1,800 and seven months are left. If the place re-rents in a month, you owe about $1,800 plus the ads, not $12,600. In states without that duty, the $12,600 is possible, so check your state’s rule before you hand back the keys.

If you have military orders

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lets you end a residential lease if you get orders for a permanent change of station, or a deployment of 90 days or more.

You give written notice with a copy of your orders, by hand, by private carrier or by mail with return receipt. The lease then ends 30 days after your next rent payment is due.

Or have your Nym do it

Text your Nym “help me get out of my lease” and send it the lease. It works out your cheapest way out, then writes to your landlord from its own email until you have a date in writing.

Sources

By Ian T. ButlerLast updated

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