Q: If you pay a lease-break free are you completely out of your lease?
Prior to signing our new lease (8 months ago), we asked our leasing agency (via email) if they had any flexible leasing options should we choose to buy a house. They responded "...when lease breaks take place and the buyer uses one of our agents, we've always offered to waive the lease break fee and take on all of the re-leasing responsibility.” What does this mean?
A:
There are two ways to view this statement. This a legally binding agreement (questionable) or this is "puffing" and unenforceable (likely the case). Review your lease. From your facts it appears that there is an early termination procedure. Follow the early termination procedure in the lease. If the landlord waives the fees, great, they lived up to their word.
If the landlord does not waive the fee, you are in a legal grey area. Usually leases have some language which voids prior written or oral statement/assurances, so likely the lease controls. My read on the "we've always waived" statement is that they are not making a promise that they will waive the fees your case (or other future cases), just that they have historically waived fees. This historical waiver may or may not be true, but either way this statement is arguably not a promise to waive fees for you.
For future reference, have all material terms included in the written lease. If the landlord will not include that language in the lease it is a sign that they have no intention of keeping their assurances.
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