Q: Early lease termination / Lease break
Our rental lease ends June 2025 and we want to negotiate an early lease termination with our current landlord.
We want to move as my wife gave birth to multiples and with a toddler already the 2 bedroom is too small and challenging. I‘m afraid that postpartum my wife could be to stressed and get a depressions due to the situation.
We posted the listing on leasebreak, but was told to remove it as the real estate broker told us to take care of it (landlord lives in Europe). We make our best efforts to make the apartment always available when requested; we leave the apartment and let them do the tour which is not always easy with multiple newborns. So far, they showed it to 5 interested persons.
We asked for early termination conditions and was told, that we can terminate the lease early if we pay 6 months of rent (of total 9 months outstanding). That was quite a shock and appreciate any advice how to proceed in this situation. Thank you!
A:
Dear Manhattan Tenant:
You avoided a colossal error. Since 2019, New York State tenants breaching a lease and leaving an apartment with money owed on a lease without a release from the landlord can sit back and wait for the landlord to rent the apartment again before even confronting the subject of owing rent. In many similar situations, the apartment is quickly re-rented, and the landlord has little or no claim for the rent left on the departed tenant's lease.
See NY Landlord Duty to Mitigate Damages
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/RPP/227-E
Daniel Michael Luisi agrees with this answer
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