Broke lease early, being charged more than remainder of lease

[opivy]

I broke my apartment lease 2 months early to buy a house, and gave the landlord notice. There is a clause in the contract that says I'm responsible for the remainder of the lease or until the apartment is re-rented. Also, if it's re-rented they charge a fee equal to 1 month's rent.

Now, they claim the apartment was re-rented immediately after my lease ended, but because the new tenant signed the contract during my lease, they're charging the full 2 month's rent PLUS the 1 month fee. So now I'm getting charged more than the remainder of the lease for leaving early. Can they do this?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

It would appear that they are attempting to "double dip" a bit by charging both for the remaining two months rent AND a lease fee.

If you disagree with this you send what is known as a "demand" letter stating that you dispute this amount. If they have taken this amount out of your security deposit you state they are to send this amount back to you within a certain time period (say, two weeks after receiving your letter). If they ignore or refuse this demand, then you must decide if it is worth it to file a lawsuit against them.

If they instead are demanding money from you, your letter should state that you disagree with this and believe that you only owe for the last two months rent. They may, in turn, file a lawsuit against you so you need to decide if it's worth going to court over this.

Gail

 

[opivy]

Thanks Gail,

I've already disputed, and I'm still trying to convince them that paying the full remainder of the lease is more than fair... Hopefully that will work. They're asking for money from me since the 2 months + fee is not greater than my security deposit.

I guess my concern is if I can't get them to agree, what's next? Say I decide to go to civil court, do I have any shot at winning? Would a judge be more inclined to say something like "legally they can do that due to the way the contract is written" or would they side with me and say "once the remainder is paid, the landlord has no further loss so can't charge the extra fee"...