Realtor wants to end lease early. But not pay penalties. 

Q: I am an 80-year old semi-retired Realtor for 28 years. I recently rented an apartment in a rental apartment building managed by a professional management company. After a month in the apartment, I had medical issues come up requiring me to leave and move out. These medical issues prevented me from driving and required surgery. I needed to be near friends and in a senior community.

I wrote a letter to the manager and was told that I would owe two months’ rent penalty. The management company re-rented the unit right away. They incurred no loss. I was also told my health situation did not matter. I’m on Social Security and VA disability and I can’t deal with this alone. Who can I call to help me? And, why doesn’t the landlord do something when it comes to seniors?

Special lease terms for seniors?

A: We’re actually surprised by your question. You’ve been a Realtor for almost 30 years. You should know that the lease you signed with your landlord was a contract that obligates you to pay rent and obligates the landlord to provide you with a rental unit for the term of the lease.

It’s the same principle as with a purchase and sale agreement. The buyer signs the purchase contract, and is then obligated to pay the purchase price and close on the deal. When the seller signs the same purchase contract, the seller is obligated to sell the home under the terms of the contract. When a buyer fails to abide by the terms of the purchase agreement, the seller has the right to their remedies under the contract. Some purchase and sale agreements provide for a liquidated damages clause that allows the seller to receive a certain predetermined amount from the buyer should the buyer fail to close on the purchase of the home.

Negotiate special lease terms upfront

It’s curious that you would expect your treatment under an executed agreement to be different from what is likely prescribed. We suspect that your executed lease agreement with the management company includes a two month penalty in case you decide to break the lease. You might not like it, but the two months’ penalty is often better than the alternative. In some states, you might have been required to pay out the full length of the lease term.

Whether the landlord was out of pocket doesn’t negate your requirement to pay the penalty. You never know what a local rental market might be like. There are times when a tenant breaks a lease and it takes the landlord months to re-rent the place. When that happens, the landlord may be able to go after the tenant for the duration of the vacancy along with other expenses in trying to re-rent the property.

If you needed an out during the term of the lease, you should have negotiated that and written it into the lease terms. Without it, you’re bound by the agreement you made with the landlord.

Anticipate and negotiate lease issues before you sign

There are a few common concerns for tenants when thinking about a least term. These include the loss of a job, relocation due to a job change or to care for a family member, purchase of a home, call to active duty or military status, death or illness.

When some of these situations are possible, or even foreseeable a prospective tenant will try to negotiate a termination right with the landlord. In some situations, the landlord may agree to the early termination. But the landlord may request a termination penalty or some fee to cover the landlord’s expenses in re-renting the home. But, in many cases, landlords will agree to the prospective tenant’s request. They will simply tell the tenant that they can either take the property under the proffered lease terms – or not. At that point the tenant bears the risk that the foreseeable event occurs. If it does, the tenant takes the hit financially.

Ask the landlord to add an early termination clause 

Some landlords do anticipate that things will happen. They build into their leases an early termination provision. This clause would simply state that if the tenant terminates the lease early, the tenant can pay a certain amount to the landlord. It appears that your landlord has this type of a termination clause. The cost for your early termination is cost you two months rent.

We know of one special situation: where members of the military enter into leases. If the service member enters into active duty during the lease term, the service member can notify the landlord of their choice to terminate the lease early.

Back to you. You mentioned your age and your medical condition in your question. As a real estate professional, you should know that your age, medical condition, finances and personal relationships are not usually relevant when it comes to the terms of a residential tenancy. When a tenant has these issues, the tenant must bring them up when negotiating the lease and before signing on the dotted line.

You didn’t do this, presumably because you didn’t know you’d have a medical issue. Now, you want to know what you can do or who you can call. You have a couple of options. First, you can plead your case with the manager of the building. The manager may have the discretion to waive some or all of the penalty but does not have the obligation to do anything for you.

Attorneys can review lease agreements

You can also reach out to a local attorney in your area to review your lease document and other correspondence to see what your rights might be in your situation. The attorney may also know of state or local laws or ordinances that would require the landlord to terminate the lease early without any penalty.

We don’t know what an attorney would charge you for this service. It might be more than the penalty itself. But you can request a consultation and ask what their fees will be. If you don’t have money to pay for those services, you can look for a legal aid clinic in your area that might be able to assist you. You can also look at the various organizations of which you are a member to see if any of them offer any legal aid that you might be able to use.

Read more about residential leases:

Inherited Property with a Rental Lease

I Can’t Afford My Rent

Can a Landlord Terminate a Lease

 

©2023 by Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.