I broke my lease early, what is the worst that can happen to me?

shit dude i dunno

good post grady

Breaking a lease is expensive! I did it once and had to pay the equivalent of first and last months' rent, plus a penalty that was the equivalent of one month's rent + $180.

Did you keep a copy of the contract?

I don't have it. I know it's going to be expensive and I'm prepared to pay... but I'm not going to jail, right?

I guess you could get sued for the remainder of the lease, but that seems unlikely. Unless your landlord is a vindicative prick, it wouldn't be worth his/her time and money to go through the hassle of suing you. Especially if he/she can find a new renter in a couple of weeks time. I'm no legal expert though. Laws pertaining to this kind of thing do vary state-to-state (I'm assuming you are in the U.S.). Most likely thing to happen is that you lose your portion of the security deposit. It won't be that big of a deal, but you might be out some money.

You should read up on it. There are bound to be some decent websites with basic information about tenant rights and responsibilities. Finding some of those websites would probably be a better use of your time than asking random people on a message board. Stop freaking out, you're not going to jail.

http://www.pontauchange.com/Oddities/miseropoly.gif

Sorry I am freaking out. Thank you.

If you want to ask on a message board, try the Craigslist housing board...they tend to know their stuff. I wouldn't take anything anyone says on the internet as gospel of course but I think it's a better place to start.

x-post yeah, the following is TOTALLY speculation, talk to someone who really knows in your area.

So I'm assuming both of you signed the lease? In all honesty, he's probably the one they'll go after first for the $ since he's still there. It might depend on how much of a stink your roommate puts up and how sympathetic to him the management company is, and how litigious they are. Oh and what the terms of the lease are (50/50 split spelled out, right). I don't know, but I highly doubt you're looking at jail time either way. I'm pretty sure broken lease contracts don't end up that way.

You might want to try establishing some contact with your renters. They just want their apartment paid for. If you let them know what's up, they might just encourage your roomie to get another person in there or do it themselves. I suspect the worst option is to just run away from it. Good luck.

Calm down, look over your lease with the help of some pro advice, (maybe get an hour of lawyer time or a renter or something) and take it from there.

yeah. you're not going to jail.

you should be able to possibly work out a sublet agreement. you need to work with your landlord and your old roommate.

if your old roommate is still occupying the space, you're ok. not the end of the world.

i would recommend the following:

- pay your half of the rent until the roommate finds a replacement to sublet. hell, even pay for the classified ad.

- be in total contact with your landlord about the situation. etc. the landlord may want the new person on the lease even. work it out.

- ensure the minimum damage by being proactive and doing the honorable thing, even if it means some personal sacrifice. being cooperative is much more likely to produce the least damaging outcome. i'm sure some of the freak out was just the explosion of the moment.

worse case scenario is that your roommate fucks around, bails, and the landlord sends your stuff to a collection agency and your credit is going to get fucked until you settle up. well, once your credit is fucked, it's fucked for seven years. seven, very uncool years.

it would be a waste of time to sue.

^^^ good advice.

Yeah jail is really not going to happen. Much money probably is, however. And it sounds like you've rather sodded up things with yr friend, unfortunately :( (thats not a helpful thing to add, I suppose).

good advice from msp. I would add that when you contact the landlord, you should explain that you needed to leave for personal reasons - keep it vague but imply that you basically lost it and had to go home. They'll probably be more willing to work with you and maybe even thankful to get rid of you.

This worse thing that could happen is that your landlord is in with the Mob and has your legs broken. Beats jail, though, huh?

^^^ bad advice.

You are going to prison for the rest of your life.

Yeah just work on getting a subleaser. That can backfire too, unfortunatley, so cross your fingers that he/she is reliable. Once I went through something like this when everyone in my old house, including my subleaser, vanished without a trace, owing lots and lots of back rent, and leaving me as the ONLY person on the lease the landloard could track down. I tried tracking the others down myself but nothing came of it.
It wound up going to court and I actually had to go to the sheriff's office to be served some papers. I told her the story, told her how I was getting screwed, and she QUITE ILLEGALLY "gave" me the address of one of the other guys on the lease. Pretty hilarious actually-- I told her some names and she typed up a few things on the computer to see if she could find anything. First was old roommate D@1e. This name turns on a light, "Ugh, not him, gimme another one...!"--previously acquainted! :D So I give her another name and the looks it up. About this time a guy walks in with business of some sort and she says to me, "You sit ... here...while I help this gentleman behind you", placing me directly in view of her computer monitor, "and we'll talk about what options you have after I get him taken care of." Thankfully I've got a good memory when the situation demands it!

So yeah, I got stuck with the remaining two months rent (we're talking a house with five people) AND all the back rent those jobless beatoffs had accumulated. Cut in half because I found the other guy.

What I'm saying is this sucks. But no jail. Dude.

Assuming you're in the US, you can likely find all the information you need by googling "NameOfYourState tenant rights" or similar. Most/many states have little PDF guides that give really short, simple guides to how you're supposed to handle situation.

Here in Massachusetts, how lease breaking works is that under most circumstances your landlord is under a legal obligation to fill the tenancy from the time you inform them. However until they find a new tenant, you have to pay them your rent every month. If either doesn't happen, either party can bring the other to court. In practice, the landlord places some ads, and then people find new tenants themselves, I've never known anybody involved in an actual court case (save my mother evicting somebody, but that was a different situation).

Probably none of this is directly applicable to your situation (unless you're in MA) but you should make sure you know your rights here before you get into anything else. Make sure the landlord is fully aware of your situation, and treat them respectfully. Since you gave short notice, make sure you at least have paid out that month.

FYI, many leases do not allow subletters, period. Check first, before you manage to anger your former roommate and the landlord at the same time...

I have broken a number of leases prematurely, and every one worked out in the end, even the really messy ones. In my experience, the most likely thing is that you'll end up eating a security deposit, paying a month of extra rent, and having a group of former roommates you'd rather not see for the next couple years. Jail time is not in your future.

...just to clarify about the subletter thing: I'm not suggesting you find a replacement tenant (that would be good), just that if you do make sure you are no longer on the lease. Staying on the lease once somebody else is living there and paying rent opens you up to a lot of potentially bad things.