Q: I want to cancel a lease on an apartment I havent moved into yet, they are saying have to pay 2 months rent?
I signed a lease and gave a deposit. Not scheduled to move in until 1/19/2023. Today is 11/21/2022. Requested to cancel, haven't even looked at the place, requested cancellation less than 2 weeks after I secured it. They are saying even though I haven't moved in and wont for 60 more days, I have to pay 2 months of rent plus some prorated days, can they do this even though I have not moved in yet??
A: It depends of the agreement, the execution and the reason for cancelling.
A:
Legally, I think what they are doing is very questionable. Real Property Law section 227-e requires you landlord to mitigate damages once he is properly notified that you intend to break the lease. Meaning after being properly notified by you, he can’t simply sit back and let the arrears pile up and sue you: he must make diligent efforts to find a new tenant, particularly since your move in date is still more than 1 month away. It is very important that you draft a proper cancellation letter and serve him via the procedure outline in the lease, and retain legally admissible proof of service (consider consulting a professional attorney about this).
Then you would still have to deal with the risk of them filing a case against you for the rent. Although the tenant blacklist was officially abolished by the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, be aware that the New York court system still reports “anonymized” data on eviction cases to consumer reporting databases, and sophisticated landlords can use data triangulation to match the cases to the tenants, if they are so inclined. This probably doesn’t apply to most smaller landlords, but you can’t really be sure.
This is just general information, not legal advice, and this answer does not form an attorney client relationship. To advise you I would have to review the lease and your course of performance with the landlord thus far.
Steven Warren Smollens agrees with this answer
A: Under current New York State law the landlord is without a legal claim to compel two months' rent payment to cancel the lease. Make certain you properly documented your notification that you are turning in the lease and the keys and not moving in.
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