breaking a rental lease
I am leasing a town home in California to four college students for 1 year. 3 of the students want to break the lease and move out 5 months into the contract. 1 student will assume the full monthly rent. All four students are on the same contract. Do they forfeit their deposit?
Re: breaking a rental lease
Probably not; remember, the purpose of the deposit is to protect the landlord against losses, and so far you haven’t sustained any quantifiable financial injury.
I suppose, however, that you could exact a new consideration for the new contract; the lease with the remaining student would be what is called a “novation” (replacement of an existing contract with another) and since the departing students receive a benefit from the novation (release from their obligations on the old contract) they can be asked to pay something. However, if they were to refuse and just move out, there would be no novation, but you’d still have no loss upon which to sue.
I think the practical solution is to retain the same overall amount of money as a deposit, without regard to which tenant it comes from, and let the four of them work it out; but be sure it is understood that when the lease is up you can and will make the entire refund (less appropriate deductions, of course) to the one student who remained.
Bryan Whipple
Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law
P O Box 318
Tomales, CA 94971-0318