Breaking a lease in New Albany, Ohio- Help needed for my mom

October 31, 2014 12:24 PM

My mom needs to break her lease in New Albany. They just bought a new house. I know about tenants right in Chicago, but not in Ohio. Can any one help me with advice. Is there a residential landlord and tenant ordinance? Is there a tenant's union? thanks
posted by TRUELOTUS to Law & Government (13 answers total)

What does her lease say? Some will have a penalty of a month or two, some make you pay the entire remainder of the lease.

Read the lease first, then make decisions based on that.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:29 PM on October 31, 2014

From: https://www.ohiobar.org/forpublic/resources/lawyoucanuse/pages/lawyoucanuse-449.aspx
Q: Can I get out of my lease because my personal circumstances have changed?
A: Not unless your lease includes language that allows you to get out of your lease early. Some landlords will include provisions that allow either party to terminate a lease with a certain amount of advance notice. If there is nothing in your lease that allows you to get out of your lease early, talk with your landlord about working out a solution.

In order to break the lease, you normally have to just ... tell the landlord you're breaking the lease, and do whatever you agreed to do when you signed it. However, as in most places, the landlord has to make a reasonable effort to rent the property to a new tenant, and once he or she does so, your mom will be off the hook.

I googled "breaking lease Ohio" and got the following which will probably be helpful; mostly they just say the above, assuming the property she's leasing is habitable:

http://www.cleveland.com/rentals/plaindealer/index.ssf/2014/01/what_renters_need_to_know_about_breaking_a_lease.html

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tenants-right-break-rental-lease-ohio.html
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:31 PM on October 31, 2014

Also - you might have heard that there's some maximum number of months that you can be required to cover if you break your lease. Not so in Ohio, according to anything I've ever heard or read.

Qualifications: Ohio resident, former Ohio renter.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:33 PM on October 31, 2014

A reminder Chicago is a super tenant friendly city. Don't expect anything like it.
posted by AlexiaSky at 12:35 PM on October 31, 2014

Response by poster: Yes, this is why I am asking. In Chicago, the LL has a duty to mitigate damages, therefore, they are suppose to show you vacant apartment and prioritize it over any vacant unites they have in the apartment complex. I can not find this information via a Google search. I am trying to find out what the law says in Columbus, ohio.
posted by TRUELOTUS at 12:59 PM on October 31, 2014

Response by poster: this is what I have found online, but where are the
laws/codes to back this up?
https://www.ohiobar.org/forpublic/resources/lawyoucanuse/pages/lawyoucanuse-449.aspx
posted by TRUELOTUS at 1:09 PM on October 31, 2014

You may have a code or statute in place, but any language in the lease will supersede standard language. The landlord may have included different language in the text of the lease. I've signed leases that stipulate one month's rent as a penalty for breaking the lease. In Pittsburgh, I paid the entire term of the lease when I left 4 months early.

What does the lease say? Start with that and then discuss with your landlord. Starting with statutes, codes and theories of the law is counter-productive until you know exactly what you're dealing with.

As adults one of the things that we do is weigh our options when we change our minds. Your mother signed a lease with a specified term. For some reason, she's purchased a house in the midst of that term. That's great, if she took into consideration any penalties for breaking her lease. So read the lease, figure out what the penalties are and pay them. Why would that be unfair or not right for her to do?

It's possible that if the penalties are high, that you might be able to negotiate with the landlord. But leases are serious documents and unless it's unconscionable or illeagale language, that's the deal your Mom made, and she should honor it.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:29 PM on October 31, 2014

New Albany is actually not part of Columbus, it's a separate entity. So you'd want to look up anything from Franklin County (or Licking, depending on what part she's in) or from New Albany's city laws.

In Columbus, I know the landlord does not have any impetus to try to rent the unit before others. I had a landlord tell me I could advertise and try to recruit a new tenant in fact.

For state law, the Ohio Revised Code is likely where this would be.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 1:55 PM on October 31, 2014

Response by poster: this is all I have found and it does not seem complete:
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5321
posted by TRUELOTUS at 2:12 PM on October 31, 2014

It's not clear whether you have reason to believe your mother's landlord is going to be terrible about this but seriously in most jurisdictions the first, easiest thing to do is to talk to the landlord about coming to a mutually-agreeable solution and resort to legal means only if that doesn't work.
posted by mskyle at 2:21 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

Try googling Ohio duty to mitigate:

http://ohiolandlordtenantblog.com/2013/02/landlords-duty-to-mitigate-damages-in-residential-leases-in-ohio/
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 11:00 AM on November 1, 2014

yes, she has spoken with the management company, they are holding her liable for the entire lease.
posted by cheetahchick at 12:41 PM on November 1, 2014

Even if the landlord says, "You liable for the entire lease," you can say to them, "Look, I don't have the money for that and I've bought this new house, how can we work this out?" And maybe the landlord will be amenable to something where *she* advertises for a new tenant and shows the apartment or something like that. Suing the landlord will most likely be time-consuming and could be expensive.
posted by mskyle at 1:04 PM on November 1, 2014