my husband and i rent out the bottom floor of our brownstone. the current tenant signed a one year-lease in october 2007, and now wants to move because she is getting back together with a boyfriend. we like her and she's been a good tenant, so we plan to let her out of the lease, but wanted to know what is reasonable to expect in terms of compensation. since the apartment needs to be repainted (and respackled, as she's hung many things on the walls) we feel that it is not fair for us to have to "eat" this cost now just because she is leaving 1/2 way through the lease. we felt that it would be reasonable to let her out of the lease, but stipulate that we would take the cost of painting and repairs out of her security deposit (which would still leave a good amount of money coming back to her) however, this is not spelled out as an option for us in the lease itself, nor does the lease say anything at all about punitive measures for lease breaking. i understand that many landlords let people out early but keep the security deposit. this option is also not mentioned in our lease. so to sum up, i feel we are being more accomodating than we could be (i.e. not witholding the entire deposit, or even worse requiring her to pay for the remainder of the leave), but at the same time don't know if we can actually require her to pay for painting, etc. as it's not spelled out specifically in the lease. any thoughts?

