What happens when you need to leave an apartment or house before the lease is up?
Under Arizona law the only circumstance in which a tenant can break or terminate a lease early is when the landlord has failed to maintain the premises in a safe and habitable condition.
So unless that was the situation, breaking the lease will cost you money. It doesn’t matter if you lost your job, are relocating, your roommate moved out, or any other situation that makes it impossible to continue to rent a house or apartment
You’re responsible for the balance of rent due under the lease until the end of the term. You can’t just find someone else to move in either, either, unless you’re allowed to do so under the lease agreement; most specify that you cannot sublease a rental.
The best thing to do is to contact the landlord and make every effort to work something out. Some will be more cooperative than others, but if you can get out of a lease making only partial payment count yourself lucky.
Tags: breaking a lease
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
This is absolutely ridiculous!! It gives you NO incentive to find & buy a Home!!! You will be paying monthly rent + monthly Mortgage costs!!
Most ordinary people cannot AFFORD to do this!!
What is the solution??? Where are my ‘CIVIL’ rights??
March 20th, 2009 at 11:01 am
My Mother rented a house about 2 and a half weeks ago and we did a walk thru and everthing looked ok. So when we moved in we start finding out what is wrong with house like kitchen sink stops up easy grout around the kitchen sink leaks, pool light dont work, one tub in master bedroom doesnt work main bath cloged up she did not clean the carpets or house for that matter. The house I guess was sitting empty for a while so we thought we could get thru a few problems untill she start complaning about everthing we want fixed, like the frige in bar room or ice maker in bar room and the electrical problems we were havening she finaly sent out an electrition and he said the house wirering was shot and that we better buy renters insurance because it would ruin are electronics this is too much i want out this is only half the stuff wrong with this house I would expect a few problems but this is over the top she wants out what are her options can we break lease and still get are deposit back we have not even lived there a month yet and we have all these problems let alone bad wirering so I can wory if my pet is going to burn up while I am at work.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 am
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June 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I have a question, if you have roaches, black widow spiders, a stove with two broken burners the landlord has still not replaced as he promised, and a faulty ac unit making you pay more in electricity then rent.Does that fit the description of the landlord not keeping the place livable?
June 18th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
It certainly does in my opinion! That sounds terrible.