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Landlord Wants to Terminate Lease Early to Sell Home Without Transferring Lease

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  • 02-06-2016, 10:13 AM
    posterda
    Landlord Wants to Terminate Lease Early to Sell Home Without Transferring Lease
    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Maine
    Hello and thank you in advance for any help/suggestions.
    We moved into our current property in June of 2015 and signed a two year rental agreement. Out landlords had been trying to sell their property but due to difficulties with the housing market they decided to take it off the market and put it up for rent. Recently, they informed us that they would like to show the house to potential buyers. We complied and made sure the property was in tip top shape for the viewing. The day following the viewing, the landlord contacted us asking if we would break our lease because the family wanted to purchase the home and move in by June 1st of this year ( roughly one year short of our rental terms).

    I do understand that they cannot force us out of the property (all rent has been paid on time and we take exceptional care of the house) but it is a huge inconvenience for us to move. First the house is a large three bedroom that we completely furnished (took 2 months to get everything settled in), we have a dog which makes finding a new property more difficult, and we are both students in medical doctoral programs. The difficulty is that the semester does not end until mid/end of July and we will have continued daily clinical obligations at the local hospital, as well as licencing exams to prepare for. On top of this, the fourth year of medical school is set up independently where students organize clinical rotations at different teaching hospitals and clinics across the country. We have already established several rotations in the area and it is exceeding complex/difficult to set up rotations for a couple in the same area. This would put quite a wrench into our plans for our final year of school.

    We do realize that our landlords are not in the best financial situation having two mortgages and that renting was not their ideal situation. Additionally, the housing market in our area is not great and it was difficult for them to find potential buyers in the past. We do not want to make the situation unnecessarily difficult for them and realize that forcing them to follow the lease terms would jeopardize the sale of their property (and I am fairly sure would make for a difficult renter/landlord relationship).

    My question is what would be fare negotiating terms to agree to terminate our lease early? Our rent is $1800 per month without any utilities included. Any information or tips would be super helpful.
  • 02-06-2016, 11:00 AM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Landlord Wants to Terminate Lease Early to Sell Home Without Transferring Lease
    Quote:

    Quoting posterda
    View Post


    My question is what would be fare negotiating terms to agree to terminate our lease early?

    How's this:

    "Mr landlord, pay us $10,000 to break the lease or find a buyer that wants a tenant occupied house or wait until June 2017 to sell your house. Cash in advance. Take it or leave it."

    Don't back down and don't feel sorry for the landlord. He'd screw you in a heartbeat. You've got all the leverage, and the law on your side, he has none.
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