Hi all! New here and new landlord. I’m hoping to get some advice and opinions from your experiences and thank you in advance for that. Here is the deal:
Rented house in March to a one year lease. Tenant always has paid on time and all looks Ok from outside. This monday sends me email that he has to buy another house due to FHA changing rules on Oct 15 so he wants out by sept 30 and hoping I can terminate lease.
For sure will try to re-lease ASAP but what can I do to hold him to the lease until it is rented again. Once he is gone for sure will be hard to get monies without legal judgements. Thoughts and ideas appreciated…
Sounds like a responsible tenant to me - always paid on time, place looks OK from the outside, gave you over thirty day’s notice (instead of just moving out in the dark of night without notice), and their credit is good enough to buy a house. I would do a walk through with the tenant just before they are ready to move out. If the inside is OK and you can quickly move another tenant in, I’d probably cut the teant a break and let them out of the lease.
It would depend on how quickly I would expect to rent the property. I would charge them a set amount of $$ to get out of the lease ( I consider this - as giving them a break.) I did this before when I had a lease with a couple, and they broke up. She wanted to stay in the house and found a new roomate. I charged them to terminate their old lease.
He owes you rent every month until you get it re-rented. You, in return, have to make a serious effort to find a replacement tenant.
The other option is to let him buy his way out of the lease by giving you a couple of month’s rent as a lump sum.
I can’t think of any reason for you to go without your rent and maybe have some financial hardship just so that your tenant can break his contract and buy himself a house.
My leases have a clause for early termination. 30 days notice with a right to show property. 1 months additional rent. Move in condition when they vacate. That said I had a tenant tell me that he was moving out in a week on the day the rent was due. I told him to pay that months rent and be out in 10 days with a clean apartment and we would consider his obligations met. Showed the apartment the week after he left and rented it with move in at the end of the month. He left happy and I had no interruption in income. Couldn’t have done that without a strong lease in the first place. Negotiate if you have to but do it from a position of power. Having a strong position to start is what its about. My leases are 90% about me and what i get.