Lease Release / Transfer Clause
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
VonHagNDaz wrote:
Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
Generally breaking a lease means that you pay the rent until the place is filled again. This may take up to a month, sometimes more, but I have never heard of 3 months. Every place I have lived in has a waiting list though, and it was usually about 2 weeks which they rounded up to a month :rolleyes: but it does definitely sound like the complex is trying to milk you for everything they can. Chances are they would still fill it within a month, then have 2 months of collecting rent for the same apartment from two people, the current and previous tennant. Unless the apartment market is so low that they can't fill the apartment, there is little reason beyond greed to take 3 months. One alternative is to find a new tenant, not transfer the lease, but guarentee the apartment is filled with a new lease. I did this once with my replacement when I moved jobs. The person who took over my job took my apartment under a new lease, I broke mine with minimal fees, and everyone was happy.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
I was in that situation once back when I lived in Ontario Canada and they had draconian rental / lease laws. You just find another tenant, someone trustworthy and upstanding (i.e. with a job and unlikely to damage the apartment) and sublet it to them without any official paperwork or documentation. 3 months does sound excessive though.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
I've been in that situation, found another tenant and was still screwed. I contacted a lawyer friend and they told me that I didn't really have a leg to stand on in TN, it would cost way more to try to get out of the lease legally then to just pay everything the landlord was asking for. We actually moved into the place when the previous tenants broke their lease, but they were buddies with the landlord, so he let them slide.
This blanket smells like ham
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
I own quite a few rental properties and your situation sounds pretty standard; in fact I would call it generous. If any of my renters break their lease I hold them responsible for the rent until it is occupied as well as my additional marketing cost (usually ~$300). It's all there in black and white and my contracts require that they initial the section signifying that they have read it.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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What in your lease says you have to pay it? Give me exact language if possible.
Current Rant: "I want my news in ENGLISH." http://craptasticnation.blogspot.com/[^]
ill have to get back to you on this, so far all of these interactions have been over the phone. ill get a copy of the lease tonight after work.
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
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I was in that situation once back when I lived in Ontario Canada and they had draconian rental / lease laws. You just find another tenant, someone trustworthy and upstanding (i.e. with a job and unlikely to damage the apartment) and sublet it to them without any official paperwork or documentation. 3 months does sound excessive though.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
John C wrote:
You just find another tenant, someone trustworthy and upstanding (i.e. with a job and unlikely to damage the apartment) and sublet it to them without any official paperwork or documentation.
That only works if the lease allows for it. I don't allow my renters to sublet without my permission. I run a credit & criminal history checks on all my renters and require that people they sublet to meet all of the same requirements. My rental units are only as good as my renters.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
My understanding of how it works (at least here in Canada) is that you're only responsible for direct costs/damages; those being the costs of the landlord to advertise and find a new tennant and whatever time in your lease the property is vacant. For $500 I would just pay it though to walk away clean. If the landlord sues you in Small Claims court you'll have to come back to defend yourself, which could easily mean for than $500 in travel and hotel expenses.
David Marc Clifton wrote: Next life, when I reincarnate as a woman, I'm going to be a strip club dancing lawyer.
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John C wrote:
You just find another tenant, someone trustworthy and upstanding (i.e. with a job and unlikely to damage the apartment) and sublet it to them without any official paperwork or documentation.
That only works if the lease allows for it. I don't allow my renters to sublet without my permission. I run a credit & criminal history checks on all my renters and require that people they sublet to meet all of the same requirements. My rental units are only as good as my renters.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
That only works if the lease allows for it.
Chris Austin wrote:
them without any official paperwork or documentation.
i.e. don't tell anyone. In my case it was a 25 story apartment building, one of 5 in the area. The property managers had no way of knowing who was who.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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I'm currently living in Charleston, SC, and I've just received an offer for a new job in Columbia, SC. The new company has allotted me $1500 for moving expenses, but it will cost me ~$2000 to break my current lease. My current complex is claiming that it will cost me 3 months rent to terminate my their lease, and my new company is firm on only allotting the $1500, which leaves me $500 in the hole just to break the lease + whatever my actual moving expenses might be. The HR manager says there should be a "lease release / escape clause" that would lower the ~$2000 amount. Basically he's saying that my current complex is trying to milk me for as much as possible. I've requested a copy of my lease and I've been online searching for SC renters rights / laws, but I'm having trouble getting results from my web searches. Does anyone have a previous experience, advice(obviously you guys aren't lawyers, so I'm not expecting something I can quote to them), or a good reference for me to check out?
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
Talk to your local housing counseling agency. They are typically free services and are in touch with the current law. http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm?webListAction=search&searchstate=sc[^] If anybody can help, they can. Often times they will mediate claims also. Hogan