Getting Out of a Lease?

Tell you sister to go to the government office and apply for assistance. They can help with emergency cash and housing vouchers. But the first thing she should do is talk to her landlord and explain the situation, they might just let her out of her lease.

There is a tenant advocacy organization in Minnesota called HomeLine. They have attorneys and law students answering questions by phone. My husband volunteered there while in law school. You should have your sister call them for legal advice. It's FREE.

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I am actually going through the same thing. Me and my boyfriend broke up and he moved out leaving me with EVERYTHING. I already went to talk to the office of my townhouse and there is nothing you can do except pay a fee which for me was over $3000. If i can't afford my monthly rent how do they think I can come up with over $3000? It's a real bummer. But maybe her landlord is more lenient. Tell her I said Good Luck.

Last year I was unemployed and pregnant and I couldn't get out of my lease. It's so hard!

Hi J.,

I used to work in property management (ie I worked for the landlord) tell your sister first step is review the lease for the hardship clause, I seen the other lady mentioned it, but honestly I wouldn't count on it. You didn't mention if it was a year lease or a month to month.. I am assuming it is a year lease because otherwise most month to month leases come with a 30 or 60 day written notice to termintate. The only exception I can think of is some month to month leases indicate that the lease can not be terminated in Nov. Dec. Jan. or Feb. because living in this wonderful winter wonderland makes it harder to release in the snow. If it is a year lease talk to the landlord, I believe by law the landlord has to do their best to rerent the apartment, but your sister will have to be completely open to having the landlord in and out of the unit for showings... the more often people are through the apartment the better the odds of rerenting it. She will be responsible for the rent until the lease is signed by a new tenant. And if the landlord wants to be a jerk he can also require her to pay for the newspaper add. There are ways out but the sooner she acts the better, it is getting cold and the apartment will be hard to rerent. As far as her finding a place now is a good time to be looking, there are alot of deals out this time of year, ladlords are scrambling to fill untis before winter comes and they have to "eat" the money for rent. Also kind of unrelated... but a good thing to know... if you ever move out of an apartment and it takes the landlord longer than 21 days to have your security deposit sent back to you they owe you double the security deposit. Even if you had quite a few repairs and you were only getting $10 back, not only would they have to pay you the WHOLE deposit back they have to double it...IT'S THE LAW.. hope this helps... good luck to your sis

My landlord let me out of my lease because of domestic violence and my daughter was less than 6 weeks old so I wasn't working they would rather just let me out then deal with a court battle so I was very LUCKY!

I would just try and negeotiate landlords hate going to court it's exspensive and time consuming. If the landlord did take her to court she could end up with a unlawful detainer and then it's really hard to ever rent again.

Does she have children? Section 8 and Section 42 housing could be a option.

I rent a townhouse that is section 8 and it's 30% of my income and is always affordable. There are alot of families where I live that work but just can't afford the outrageous rent out there so opt for this.

Sorry to hear about your sister's situation. I don't know much about leases, so unfortunately, I can't help. Do you know if there is anything eles she needs help with? Is she working? I would think her landlord would consider this an extenuating circumstance and let her out of it. Where will she go next?

In many cities, there is an organization that helps with these kinds of tenant/landlord relationship issues. The one in Madison, WI is called the Tenant Resource Center and they have a section called House Counseling, which provides mediation between the tenant and landlord. Although this is a non-profit organization, in some places this kind of help is city-run, as it was in Boulder, CO. You could easily Google the name of the town or city your sister lives in along with such key words as I mention above. You would likely get both types of listings.

Good luck. I wish her all the best!
R.

I neede to get out of my lease too. I just asked. They said ok. They would rather know up front than have her skip out and then have to find a new renter. If she gives notice, they can start to look for a new leaser.
Good Luck

The resources sent you about section 8 housing and other resources are great-have her check into all-and be completely honest with her landlord.....and one other option I didn't see listed is the Salvation Army. They will provide one month's rent for those in trouble. (I'm sure they don't offer a longer period because there are always folks that would let them pay for months before they found other resources.)
This one month may give her enough time to get the paperwork in process for the other resources to help out.

If there is another renter lined up you can get out of it very easily however the larger the facility the harder it may be. The best thing os for her to talk to the leasing company about it and see if there is something that she can do to reduce the payment by cleaning the halls and enteryways. on call maintance, removing the garage from her lease getting a roommate!

Ususally, unless there is a provision for hardship or an out specifically stated in a lease, you can't get out of it. However, sometimes if a landlord is nice and has some time to set up a new renter, they may let you out.

But legally, with out some sort of "out" in the contract, it's binding.

I did get out of a lease once, by finding another tenant myself. She passed the landlord's strict criteria and he accepted her as a replacement tenant (she signed a whole new lease) and he then had a new full year tenant.

She could ask the landlord about that sort of arrangement. As someone said, they would much rather collect money than spend it on court costs.