Thread: breaking rental agreement. advice needed

Originally Posted by GetALifeToo!

From my past experience - get it all in writing

BINGO. I always always always live by this motto.

I'm a property manager (residential and commercial) and basically, you're on the hook for paying the rent until the end of the lease. They really don't have to try all that hard to lease it out since your lease is still valid. If they evicted you however, then they will truly have an obligation to mitigate losses by trying to rent it out as soon as possible. Then the question of how much rent they are asking may come into question if there was a trial.

Like others suggested, you may want to try to find someone to rent it out from you and sublease or assign the lease to the new tenant. This would of course, have to be done with the landlord's approval, meaning the landlord would want to check the new person's credit, references, etc.

Depending on the city and what kind of rent control laws they have, there may be no limit to rent increases for single family homes. In the City of Los Angeles for instance, single family homes have no limit while properties where there are two or more units are limited to whatever the housing department sets as the maximum increase.

In short, I don't think you're getting screwed.