Moving out of apartment 2 months early but rent's already paid

Question

I signed a lease for a year and my lease for my apartment ends on July 27, 2019. My rent for this apartment is already paid off fully because I paid in advance and utilities are included in the rent so I don't have anything to pay monthly since I paid ahead of time.

However I want to move into a new apartment in May of 2019 before my lease ends on July 27, 2019. Do you think I can do this since everything is already paid fully on my current apartment and just keep some of my things there as I move into my new one? So it would be like I have two apartments until the lease ends.

Answer 1

The biggest stumbling blocks to these types of questions are when people want a refund, or in the cases where they haven't paid in advance they want to avoid being responsible for the last few months rent payments.

As a former landlord there can still be things to consider.

If the unit will be empty until the end of the lease:

• Don't let your renters insurance end because you are still responsible for the apartment until the final inspection.
• Don't turn off the AC/heat completely. This is especially true for the heat in the winter, you don't want the pipes to burst.
• Prepare the water system by turning off water to the toilet and if there is one turn off the water to the washing machine.
• Adjust the temperature setting of the refrigerator, some even have a vacation setting. Defrost the freezer, turn off the water to the ice Maker/water dispenser.
• Stop the mail delivery.
• If this isn't an apartment/condo but is a townhouse or single family home and you have to mow the lawn make arrangements for that.

Tell the landlord. They may want to check on the unit while it is empty. If they want to show it, knowing that you will not be there makes it easy to schedule visits. Schedule the final walk through.

Answer 2

Since you don't mention anything about getting a refund or anything similar I don't see what could be an issue with the scenario presented.

There is nothing to prohibit you from having 2 apartments (or any amount of property for that case) rented at the same time.

As mentioned in the comments depending on how your contract is worded you may be required to notify the landlord if you leave the property unattended for an extended period of time so I would check that out. While at that notifying your landlord you won't be renewing your lease after its expiration, would also be a nice gesture.

Answer 3

I'm doing this right now. (My lease ends in a couple of months, but I have already gotten a new place.) I usually overlap by a couple of weeks, just because I don't like rushing to move.

So yes, I can verify firsthand that it is possible. You'll be paying a little under twice as much in living expenses during that time, but if that's not a financial problem, then it's not a problem at all.

The one legal issue you're likely to run into is that both leases will probably mention that you are not to abandon the residence. That sounds like a bigger deal than it is, though. It just means don't leave the place unattended for weeks on end. If you show up every couple of days to grab some stuff, make sure the place hasn't fallen apart, etc, then you should be fine.

Also note, both leases will probably stipulate that you need utilities, renters insurance, etc. It will basically be as if you lived at both places. Most if not all of the companies involved already have ways to accommodate this.

Answer 4

By the law, you are committed to the lease; prepaying has nothing to do with that. So yeah, you can store stuff in there, or perhaps investigate doing AirBnB.

I assume you'd rather have the money back, though.

You are allowed to "break the lease" by mutual consent with the landlord, because both of you are allowed to agree to change the terms. This is done all the time. The landlord "moves up" his efforts to find another tenant, and once the new tenant starts paying and moves in, you are off the hook - the lease is broken.

Normally, you have not prepaid the rent, and the landlord will naturally not want to bother finding a new tenant, and just keep dunning you for the rent. In this case there is a legal concept called "mitigation of damages". When you are in a contract and suffering financial loss, you must do what is reasonable to prevent that loss, you can't just sit on your hands and make the other party eat the loss. Breaking a residential lease is the most commonly used example of this legal principle. So the landlord can't get a court judgment for back rent owed*, unless he can prove he really did try to find a new tenant, and all were unfit.

However, since you prepaid, that is a new wrinkle. He's not the injured party: does he still have the duty to mitigate when it's not his loss? I simply don't know what the law will say about that. I do know it'll be prohibitively expensive to find out, unless you can keep the matter in small claims court. On the other hand, the landlord doesn't know how that’ll go, either, taking it to big court is mutually assured destruction.

So practically, you are at the mercy of the landlord, and your best bet is to ask, cajole or threaten him to mitigate damages by finding a new tenant, and refund your unused rent once he has done so. It's fair for him to charge you some costs, which you can mitigate by helping promote the unit. As soon as he puts up a listing, buzz it on social media etc.

Don't be shocked if he is unable to mitigate all the damages, due to tenants that don't pay etc. Landlording is a tougher business than most tenants realize.

---

Refs: reply #4 here, landlord's legal advice was he was obliged to seek a new tenant to relieve the departing tenant of obligation. Another landlord advised the same.

Answer 5

Yes, you can rent as many apartments as you like. Simple question, simple answer. I don't know why we're trying to make it so complicated?

Maybe you've agreed not to leave the apartment unoccupied. That's another matter. But surely you'd KNOW if you'd agreed that?

Answer 6

As a landlord, I get this quite often. I find I'm more receptive if a. the tenant has been a "good" tenant and b. there property is left in good condition so it's easy for me to switch someone in.

Occasionally some tenants have even found a replacement for me!

Answer 7

This is a common issue in the US for Australians on an E-3 Visa. We need to depart the country on short notice when the job ends and this will involve breaking a lease. The contract is important, as is your duty of care to the landlord. You need to pay out the notice period at least, and arrange for an inspection the day you leave.

I don't know, but there may be a provision where you are responsible for the "letting fee" that the landlord may have to pay to an agent. If you have to clean there is that too. Despite the conflict of interest it is often easy just to get the agent to handle everything, just make sure to get a final statement and reports.

Overpayments and any security bond should come back to you. You will have to pay something to get out early, but you should get 4-6 weeks back plus security.