Breaking a Lease Due to a Job Relocation?

If you got a new job elsewhere and you think that breaking a lease due to a job relocation is going to make your landlord let you leave without paying a penalty – you’re mistaken.  

There’s no such law in any state that will constitute a legal reason to break your lease, only because you got a new job. Some exceptions to this rule exist only if you are in a military and your orders will be miles away. Yes, any military service person will be able to cancel out a lease without any penalty from your landlord. Some states also allow elderly to end their lease early, if they’re accepted to assisted care living facility. That’s pretty much it.

Breaking a lease due to a job relocation can be costly and you want to avoid it. How? You may want to try and re-rent your unit to another tenant. Finding another tenant who needs to take over your remaining number of months is not that easy. Also, they must qualify for income, credit and background checks, before they’re even allowed to sign your lease.

However, in most states, when tenant wants to break a lease, a landlord must take important steps to re-rent the unit themselves. Although, many landlords are not as interested in doing an active search, due to the fact that they believe they have you on the hook already for paying a penalty, if in case, you happen to break the lease. It’s just that if your landlord ever takes you to court over breaking a lease due to a job relocation, the court will ask your landlord whether he or she tried to re-rent the unit, as well.

If you’re a new employee, sometimes your new employer provides some monetary assistance for people getting out of lease. It’s usually referred to as ‘moving expenses’ and the oftentimes give you a lump-sum that is in most cases going to cover your lease buyout from your landlord.