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Want To End Your Lease Early?

   
If you are fed-up because your landlord has been continuously noncompliant, and you want to just find a new place to live and end your current lease early, then consider the following legal information. (See also Ending the Lease Early)

General Information

If You Have A Lease With A Specified Starting And Ending Date

If You Have A Month-To-Month Or Week-To-Week Tenancy

General Information:

• Keep in mind that landlord “noncompliance” means that the landlord is violating the lease, local laws, housing codes, not making repairs, and/or any other actions listed in the Landlord Noncompliance part of the website. If you have to end your lease early because your landlord is being noncompliant, then make sure you have EVIDENCE to prove s/he is being noncompliant. KEEP ALL DOCUMENTS and/or letters concerning the situation. If your landlord tries to take you to court because you ended the lease early, you should be prepared to defend your decision.

• DO NOT HASTILY MAKE THE DECISION TO END YOUR LEASE EARLY! Make sure it is a careful, responsible action. 

• If you end your lease early, the landlord MUST REPAY all prepaid rent.

• If you feel damaged somehow because of your landlord’s noncompliance (financially, emotionally or in some other way), you may take your landlord to court to get paid back (including attorney’s fees).

If the Rental Agreement Is A Lease With A Specified Starting And Ending Date:

The tenant is legally allowed to end a rental agreement early because of the landlord’s noncompliance by pursuing the following steps:

1.  The tenant must send a WRITTEN NOTICE to the landlord stating that s/he is going to end the lease early because of landlord noncompliance. The notice must specify what the noncompliance is, and it must state that if the landlord does not comply within 14 days of receiving the notice then the lease will end after 30 days of receiving the notice. SIGN and DATE the notice (keep a copy for yourself). The notice should be mailed by certified mail with a return receipt so you can prove s/he received it. There is a Model Notice for this in Appendices.

2.  If the landlord remains noncompliant 14 days after s/he has received the notice, then the lease can be officially ended 30 days after the time of notice and the tenant is no longer legally bound to any obligations in the lease.

3.  If the landlord DOES comply within 14 days after receiving the notice, then the lease will NOT be terminated after 30 days. The tenant is still legally obligated to all conditions stated in the lease (s/he must live in the apartment, pay rent, etc.) until the end date stated on the lease has passed.

WARNING: If the noncompliance is somehow caused by fault of the tenant and NOT the landlord, then the tenant canNOT end the lease early in the manner stated above.

If the Rental Agreement Is A Month-To-Month Or Week-To-Week Tenancy:

If your rental agreement is only a month-to-month or week-to-week tenancy, then you can follow the normal rules for ending tenancy (see Ending Tenancy).