There are several reasons why a lease might end early — your tenant may need to leave early, you’re looking to sell the property before a lease ends, or in some cases, it’s because you have good reason to evict your tenant. Regardless of the situation, breaking a rental lease with a current tenant does happen and it’s important to know how to properly evict someone.
In this article, we’ll go over what to do in various situations where the lease is broken or needs to end.
The following are valid reasons for a tenant needing to break a lease:
According to the Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA), service members are allowed to terminate a residential lease if they have written orders for active duty or a permanent change of station (PCS). Landlords must comply with a lease termination within 30 days of the military orders being provided.
No matter what the situation, you’re never allowed to change the locks on the tenant, physically remove a tenant or their belongings, or shut off utilities. Below are the legal reasons you can evict a tenant and step-by-step instructions for evicting a tenant.
You are allowed to provide the tenant the eviction notice yourself and does not need to come from a sheriff. Here’s our template for writing a Notice of Eviction:
Dear Tenant’s Name,
You are hereby notified that your tenancy at property address will be terminated on date.
I am terminating our rental lease for the following reason: You have violated this particular section of the rental lease.
A court hearing may follow if you do not correct the violation above or leave the premises by termination date.
Generally, a tenant is bound to the lease unless the landlord violates its terms. A landlord has violated the lease’s terms if they don’t follow the lease rules, don’t make necessary repairs, or fail to keep the building or unit in a safe and habitable condition.
However, if a tenant doesn’t have good reason to break the lease, then they are still responsible for the remaining rent due under the lease term. To avoid sticky situations like this, landlords can use a buy-out clause.
A buy-out clause allows you or your tenant to break the lease so long as a 60 days’ notice has been provided. The individual breaking the lease will be responsible for paying a penalty fee outlined in the lease agreement, which usually falls on the tenant.
The 60 days’ notice allows you to find new tenants in a reasonable amount of time, and the penalty helps with any costs associated with finding new tenants.
If you’re buying a new property or selling a current one and there are tenants in that property, here is what you need to know:
Fixed-term leases do not expire when a property is sold since the lease transfers from previous owners to you. Before you buy a leased property, you should ask to view the existing lease.
You will be responsible for returning the full deposit to your tenant, so it’s important to have the previous landlord transfer the security deposit to you.
If you’re selling your property and handing the lease over to a new owner, then you should set up some time to review the lease with them. If you have a month-to-month lease, then you could opt to cancel the lease with adequate notice, but if you have a fixed-term lease, then you could choose to sell once the lease expires.
In the case that your lease is being transferred to the new owner, the security deposit becomes the new landlord’s responsibility. You should transfer the deposit to the new landlord and notify the tenant of the transfer and the amount transferred.
Make sure to notify your tenants of the following changes if you sell a property:
The lease is a legal and financial contract that binds the tenant to monthly rent payments. If a tenant doesn’t pay rent, then he or she is violating the terms of the lease.
First, communicate with the tenant and make sure you’ve followed the right steps for dealing with a late rent payment. If you still don’t receive the rent money, it may be time to begin the eviction process.
If a tenant fails to pay rent, breaks a rule, or significantly damages the property, then it is considered a breach of contract and you have grounds for eviction. If there are people living in the unit that are not on the lease, then that is also a breach of contract and you have grounds to evict them.
Before evicting, we recommend trying to work the issue out with your tenant. It can potentially save you and your tenant a legal hassle. Sometimes, the tenant simply misunderstood a rule, so communication can be very helpful.
State landlord-tenant laws usually have clauses about “reasonable presumption of abandonment.” You can usually presume the tenant has abandoned the property if he or she has left belongings and hasn’t paid rent for two or more months. If you are not sure, we recommend not changing the locks, because it is illegal to change the locks on a tenant as it’s considered forced eviction.
Deciding whether or not the property is abandoned is often a judgment call, but here are a few factors that can help:
In rare cases, it’s possible the tenant has been hospitalized, is away, or is staying somewhere else. But if you have good reason to believe the property is permanently abandoned, then be sure to fully understand your state’s laws surrounding abandonment.
In some states, you are allowed to throw away the tenant’s belongings. In other states, you are required to put the belongings in storage.
As we’ve covered, there are numerous reasons why a lease might end early. If you need to add a buy-out clause to your rental lease or specify other details, Avail offers state-specific, customizable lease templates that you can cater to your property.
However, not all leases end early. When you find a great tenant, you should always try to extend the lease with a lease renewal. Learn everything you need to know about lease renewals
