“My son has taken a new job and must relocate. He currently has approx. 3 months left on his rental lease agreement but needs to get out of the lease early. He has tried to contact his landlord thru the landlord’s representative but has been told the landlord is out of the country in Mexico and hasn’t been heard from for 6 weeks. The lease agreement has no provisions for terminating the lease early but the landlord’s representative has told my son he is responsible for the rent payments until the end of the lease. My son acknowledges there should be some penalty like losing his security deposit but to also have to pay the remaining 3 months seems excessive. The lease agreement is a standardized form like you could find at an office supply store.

Thanks for your help.”

You didn’t actually ask a question, here, but I’ll assume you want to know if there is some way to get around the plain language of the contract that your son signed. No.

When you sign a long-term lease, rather than a month-to-month rental agreement, you are trading off the security of knowing that your rent will not be raised during the lease term for the promise to pay for the whole term of the lease.

The landlord may be willing to waive his right to the remaining rent, if he’s feeling generous. More practically, if he (or your son) can find a new tenant for the unit, your son should not have to pay for the time that the new tenant is in place (the landlord doesn’t get double rent).


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State laws vary, and the above is intended as general advice, and not direct legal advice regarding any one particular situation in any one state. For direct personal legal advice related to your own situation you should consult an attorney familiar with the laws of your state and with your situation.