breaking a lease?

any idea how much they can charge you if you break your lease? just curious.

How fast do you need to break it? Does the LL have your SSN? Are you paying market value? Does LL have 2 month security? I'm not sure what you mean by "charge"? If you walk away today the "charge" will be your security deposit. If you stay until LL gets a new tenant at a higher rent most LLs are glad to break a lease and return security.

The best advice is to talk to the LL and give him a sob story. Even though a lease is legally binding, in NYC there is little appetite on LL's part to sue for rent owed. They would have to show the financial lose by being unable to rerent the apartment. That is highly unlikely.

There will be people posting regarding your credit report. These people are quaking in their bedrooms and have little idea of how the Landlord/Tenant world in NYC works. Most LLs have little time to be that vindictive as they are to busy counting their money.

At most... you are responsible for the FULL VALUE of the least. So, if you have 4 months left, they'll keep your security in the short-term, then sue you for the remaining 2 or 3 month's rent, and all of the damages to the property they have invented because you broke the lease.

Modsquad has a point... the landlords tend not to sue for this stuff, but they could especially if they have trouble renting the apartment. They'll need to recoup anything lost, plus some if they're lucky.

I agree, best advice... sob story... and get it in writing!! This acts as a supplementary contract with terms like, your responsible for the rent for the period it remains unrented... you'll assist finding a replacement tenant... etc.

Oh... and I mean get the agreement with your landlord about breaking your lease in writing. If you want to write down your sob story, that's fine too, just less useful. :-)

Theoretically, they can make you pay rent until the end of the lease term and can sue you for it. When I decided to break my lease six months early, I contacted the management company and they said they'd be fine as long as they re-rented it. I contacted the broker who'd rented me the apartment and put it on the available to let market. They found a new tenant within two weeks. I moved out half way through my last month so that the landlord had two weeks to get everything in order for the new tenants. I got my entire security deposit back. The new tenant pays the broker's fee.