Breaking Up (Leases) Is Hard To Do
January 5, 2011 2:41 PM
Breaking a lease in San Francisco, protips needed!
A close friend of mine is 6 months into a 12 month apartment rental term in San Francisco. She just got a dream job offer and is going to have to break her lease. Let's assume that the dream job offer does not cover 6 months of rent in San Francisco as a signing bonus. Does anybody have any experience doing this very thing? Does anybody have any tips or strategems to make this process as painless as possible?
SF has a pretty brisk rental market and she lives in a fairly popular, unique area, so finding a new tenant should not be much of a challenge, but what can she expect? What/how should she tell her landlord?
A close friend of mine is 6 months into a 12 month apartment rental term in San Francisco. She just got a dream job offer and is going to have to break her lease. Let's assume that the dream job offer does not cover 6 months of rent in San Francisco as a signing bonus. Does anybody have any experience doing this very thing? Does anybody have any tips or strategems to make this process as painless as possible?
SF has a pretty brisk rental market and she lives in a fairly popular, unique area, so finding a new tenant should not be much of a challenge, but what can she expect? What/how should she tell her landlord?
First of all, she needs to read the lease itself. What does it specify?
posted by Carol Anne at 3:09 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by Carol Anne at 3:09 PM on January 5, 2011
When I needed to break a lease, we offered to do the leg work of finding new tenants (i.e. advertising, showing, collecting paperwork) for the place and we got out with no fees/trouble. If the landlord is a reasonable sort, they might go for that. If they don't seem reasonable the Tenant's Union is a good place to turn to.
posted by grapesaresour at 3:12 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by grapesaresour at 3:12 PM on January 5, 2011
Call Landlord. Explain new job situation. Ask what is appropriate.
-Most landlords are super cool about this. If she pays two extra months and vacates, that SHOULD be it in a brisk market. If the landlord asks for more, he/she is a (insert bad word here!)
-Bonus if she finds a new renter before or even after notifying the landlord. However, I always prefer to pick my own tenants and her landlord could be same. That's why she should ask.
-She should offer to make her place available for showings while she's still there, keep the place neat while packing AND she should secure all valuables (like jewelry, mail, and financial documents) so no one viewing the apartment steals anything.
It's that simple.
posted by jbenben at 9:00 PM on January 5, 2011
-Most landlords are super cool about this. If she pays two extra months and vacates, that SHOULD be it in a brisk market. If the landlord asks for more, he/she is a (insert bad word here!)
-Bonus if she finds a new renter before or even after notifying the landlord. However, I always prefer to pick my own tenants and her landlord could be same. That's why she should ask.
-She should offer to make her place available for showings while she's still there, keep the place neat while packing AND she should secure all valuables (like jewelry, mail, and financial documents) so no one viewing the apartment steals anything.
It's that simple.
posted by jbenben at 9:00 PM on January 5, 2011
I broke a lease in SF a few years ago by doing what jbeneben and grapesaresour recomended. I hosted open houses during which I gave applications to many potential tenants. The potential tenants turned their applications into the management company and I didn't suffer anything except an arbitrary "lease-breaking fee" of several hundred dollars (deducted from my deposit) and, I assume, my own permanent black spot on that management company's list of potential tenants. I think that as long as the tenant takes responsibility to fulfill the rest of the lease with *some* source of rent the landlord shouldn't care that much. Also, the market in SF is such that it won't be a problem, especially in a "popular, unique" neighborhood.
posted by bendy at 12:33 AM on January 6, 2011
posted by bendy at 12:33 AM on January 6, 2011
Ha ha, what's funny here is that I suddenly needed to find a new place at the end of January '11. I went back to the place where I'd broken that lease because I really liked the building and there was an available unit which I tried hard to get. They made me give them my last five year's addresses, so I was able to avoid listing this building again, and apparently they never cross-referenced my name or address. In retrospect, they probably didn't care because I was a good tenant and found them another good tenant when I broke the lease.
Seriously, think about it in terms of the money (because that's all your landlord thinks of anyway). If you make sure that you cover your landlord's expenses until you find them a new tenant, they really don't care.
posted by bendy at 12:06 AM on June 1, 2011
Seriously, think about it in terms of the money (because that's all your landlord thinks of anyway). If you make sure that you cover your landlord's expenses until you find them a new tenant, they really don't care.
posted by bendy at 12:06 AM on June 1, 2011
And (blah blah blah) I just broke *that* lease with that *same* management company *again*, and I've had three open houses and driven a ton of applicants to the management company and all is good. I don't expect that I'll have to pay for any time after my 30 days notice is up since there have been so many good applicants.
posted by bendy at 12:09 AM on June 1, 2011
posted by bendy at 12:09 AM on June 1, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dolface at 2:56 PM on January 5, 2011