Dan - Finding renters before you move?

First, I don't know where Dan talked about this and I don't think I understood it right.

He said that he was moving to NY and now he has to find new people the move in his place in SF. Like, he doesn't own the place, he pays rent from what I know, so why does he have to go through all that hassle? Doesn't the owner of the appartment has to find new ppl to move in? Isn't that sopouse the be the owners job, since he gets the money?

I think it had to do with them still being in a lease, so they need to find someone to take on their lease or pay the penalty for breaking their lease.

In most cases in the US, you sign a Rental Agreement that persists through a certain time period. If you break that time period due to moving, criminal activity, or other reasons, you usually have to pay a few that adds up really high. This is to ensure that the owner of the property doesn't have any "gaps" in the property being occupied and payed for. Dan's rental agent sounds kinda cool to be honest, a lot of people/companies would require a "lease breaking fee" even if you line someone up to take over, so should he find someone to rent his place, he should be in a pretty good position.

Being in the military, you get very good at making sure you understand rental contracts and all that jazz. Thankfully, by law all rental agreements can be broken early without penalty if you get moved duty stations, as long as the company sees ones Official Orders. Some places are nasty and still try to squeeze people on fees though, so you gotta stay firm and agressive.

US is odd. I understand that the lease is there to benefit both parts, I just have to do a written notice 2-3 months before I have to move, and than the owner has to find new tenants, even with a lease.

@bokolino: That's usually how it works here if you are on a month to month payment plan, but less and less realtors seem to be offering that. Smallest you commonly find anymore is 6 months locked in. People wanna ensure their money.

If he actually rented the place he could just take his stuff and leave but he has a lease contract signed which binds him to it. Its just like a car lease, you cant just stop leasing the car whenever you want. A rental car however you can turn back whenever you want.

I can say from experience that San Francisco is (still?) pretty soft on lease breaking fees if someone takes over. My sister's apartment has switched from and back to her without a hassle and I've heard countless other people trading their lease without a fee.

Lease breaking fees sound like garbage. Also I think it's fair for the owner to expect the current tenant to find new ones or at least cooperate with the owner to find new ones. In Germany it is also expected that you do this. but it's only up to 3 months. After which the owner is on their own.

I live on an island with a Naval air station. We always figured the Navy would pay any fees when people are required to break their lease. I guess with so many military personnel the renters would just know they can't enforce the fee?

@barrock: That's really cool to hear. I wonder if it's due to San Fran being such a city of growth, always pretty easy to find someone moving in for various work/school or whatever. By comparison, most my rental history was based in Hawaii, and that place doesn't have a huge rate of long term residents moving in or out, mainly tourists, so fixed rate there is the only way to guarantee some money.

@blackout62: I don't know if the Navy would pay for it, per se, but Navy Legal would sure as hell help stop anyone who tried to swindle someone moving on official orders though. Sadly most the time shady stuff like this happens to service members, it happens to the young one who just got access to living off base for the first time. A lot of slimeball people/businesses know Young Person + Military guaranteed paycheck = potential mark, and it's a sad :(

OK. So this is one of those things that varies heavily according to where you are and what type of lease you sign, but speaking generally:

1. When you rent in the US, you sign a lease. Again, these vary a lot, but the "standard" lease is generally for year. It includes a move in and move out date, rent, what you can and can't do in the apartment, etc. It also usually has provisions related to renewing the lease at the end of the term (i.e. how much rent will go up, the deadline to renew, etc.)

2. The lease is a contact, so if you leave before the year is up, you're technically in breach and the landlord can sue you for any rent currently due. However, the landlord is really only concerned about rent, so if you want to move out early, you typically find someone to sublet the apartment. Some leases contain restrictions on how or whether you can sublet the apartment. There are also a lot of leases that require some sort of occupancy during the lease period (so that there isn't just an empty apartment for squatters to move into, or to make sure that someone is running the heat and water during the winter months), so you a lot of times can't just move out but keep paying rent.

3. Importantly, the person subletting isn't a party to the original lease - that would still be Dan in this case. So if the sublessor fails to pay rent on time, the landlord still goes after Dan for the unpaid rent. Ditto for stuff like damage to the apartment.

4. As far as the landlord's responsibilities go, if Dan were to just up and leave without finding someone to sublet, the landlord could go after Dan for any unpaid rent, up to the amount due at the time the lawsuit is brought. However, this is typically subject to the landlord's duty to mitigate. He/she needs use "reasonable efforts" to find someone else to lease the apartment. This might be advertising the space, etc. If the landlord doesn't do this, the amount the landlord can recover from Dan is reduced.

In other words, the landlord can't just let Dan move out, not do anything about it, and then 6 months or however long later sue him for the entire amount of rent remaining on the lease.