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Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant

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  • 07-27-2012, 04:43 PM
    Mike Gillerman
    Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Arizona

    Hey everyone,

    So I just went in to talk to my management about breaking my lease because I'm moving out of state. I talked directly to the complex manager and he told me that I could not have someone take over my lease until my term was up, not sublet, literally transer the lease. However, I had already talked to one of the leasing agents a week prior and they said I could if I could find someone interested in doing it.

    I found someone who's interested and already showed him the apartment. He's ready once I figure this out. I looked through my lease and there's nothing in there about subletting or transfer of the lease. The only thing it says is if you break the lease you have to pay two months rent or till the end of the agreement, plus any concessions made. It's a lot of money and I won't have it soon.

    They say if I pay it they'll work with me on a payment plan and not destroy my renter history. The manager was very adamant about that being the only option. However, I have another friend who is doing the exact same thing in his complex (different company, same state) and they are letting him transfer his lease completely to another person.

    What can I do to just transfer the lease and not pay this ridiculous fee? Anyone have any experience in this?

    Thanks
  • 07-29-2012, 11:17 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    Your landlord is entitled to enforce the terms of the lease, even if some other landlord in some other state does something different for some other tenant. They could, for that matter, let your neighbor move out without any penalty, sublet, or assign his lease and that would also have no relevance to your entirely separate lease.
  • 07-29-2012, 02:53 PM
    lawaholic
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    Quote:

    Quoting Mike Gillerman
    View Post
    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Arizona

    Hey everyone,

    So I just went in to talk to my management about breaking my lease because I'm moving out of state. I talked directly to the complex manager and he told me that I could not have someone take over my lease until my term was up, not sublet, literally transer the lease. However, I had already talked to one of the leasing agents a week prior and they said I could if I could find someone interested in doing it.

    I found someone who's interested and already showed him the apartment. He's ready once I figure this out. I looked through my lease and there's nothing in there about subletting or transfer of the lease. The only thing it says is if you break the lease you have to pay two months rent or till the end of the agreement, plus any concessions made. It's a lot of money and I won't have it soon.

    They say if I pay it they'll work with me on a payment plan and not destroy my renter history. The manager was very adamant about that being the only option. However, I have another friend who is doing the exact same thing in his complex (different company, same state) and they are letting him transfer his lease completely to another person.

    What can I do to just transfer the lease and not pay this ridiculous fee? Anyone have any experience in this?

    Thanks

    You can't break your lease just because the landlord won't approve your replacement tenant. Those aren't the terms of your contract. Your contract doesn't state that you can get out of the lease by finding someone to replace you in it. It states that you can get out of it by paying either 2 months rent or the remainder of the lease term. In order to get out of the lease, you're going to have to pay either 2 months rent or the remainder of the lease term.
  • 07-30-2012, 04:37 AM
    Mike Gillerman
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    What about the part of the Arizona Tenant Law that states the landlord has a responsibility to mitigate damages by re-renting the place? By providing another tenant to take over the premises on move out, doesn't that mitigate the damages and therefore absolve me of all rental responsibilities? If they reject a qualified replacement aren't they breaking the law at that point?

    I'm referencing various cases here http://www.thelandlordtimes.com/?q=s...tes-lease-ends

    - - - Updated - - -

    Oh and can someone tell me how to change my username? I signed in with FB, gave them a different username when I filled out my profile, yet for some reason they are using my name and that's a really bad idea.
  • 07-30-2012, 11:08 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    If a landlord has twenty units, five vacancies, and a tenant breaks his lease, the landlord can fill the five empty units before his obligation to mitigate his damages is triggered in relation to the unit abandoned by the tenant. We have no information about how many vacancies your landlord is trying to fill, even if we assume your proposed replacement will pass a credit check, so we can't tell you if his rejecting the replacement (assuming the rejection was unreasonable) would constitute a failure to mitigate. If you choose a course that results in your being sued, you can try raising and arguing that defense in court and see what happens.
  • 07-30-2012, 11:41 AM
    Mike Gillerman
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    The other applicant has already passed the credit check. There are no more 1 bedrooms open in this complex right now. It's always a full house. 2 are becoming available, but mine will be the first and only one available by the 15th. How does that affect things?
  • 07-30-2012, 11:45 AM
    Disagreeable
    Re: Can a Tenant Break a Lease If the Landlord Won't Approve a Replacement Tenant
    Quote:

    Quoting Mike Gillerman
    View Post
    The other applicant has already passed the credit check. There are no more 1 bedrooms open in this complex right now. It's always a full house. 2 are becoming available, but mine will be the first and only one available by the 15th. How does that affect things?

    The judge will decide that, if you do not pay what they request.
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