Lease says landlord can keep security deposit if I break lease

[Andrew Smith]

Jurisdiction

California

I just noticed that my lease states that the landlord can keep my security deposit if I break the lease early. This is in addition to any other damages for lost rent. Basically if I break the lease he keeps it even if I find him another qualified tenant. Is that legal in California? I live on the SF peninsula. Does California law override his edits on the lease?

 

[army judge]

Basically if I break the lease he keeps it even if I find him another qualified tenant.

He isn't required to accept the person you find.
He is required to be diligent in mitigating any damages caused by an early exit, planned or not.

Is that legal in California?

The time to have asked that question is before you signed the lease.

The legality of any issue is only adjudicated upon a trial.

Proclamations of this being legal, that being illegal, are simply speculative, not definitive.

Does California law override his edits on the lease?

Changes to a lease are critters of contract law, not statutory fiats, although statutes can be binding on the adjudication of many disputes.

Take murder for instance, prohibited in every square mile of the USA, yet murders still occur.

Countries have laws about entering illegally, one has only to look left or right to see that sovereign borders of some nations mean nothing to some people.

On the other hand, very few people break into or out of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, do they?

 

[adjusterjack]

It's not that simple. A lot depends on the exact terms and conditions of your lease as required by the following CA statute:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/fa...tionNum=1951.4.

Read it and then check your lease for the appropriate provisions.

California law doesn't take kindly to forfeitures but it does give a landlord the option of continuing to hold you responsible for the rent indefinitely and apply your deposit to unpaid rent if he complies with the statute.

Keep in mind that it's not your opinion of whether your replacement is qualified it's the landlords qualifying requirements that are paramount as long as those requirements are reasonable.

Also keep in mind that you'll be obliged to continue paying rent until the replacement is approved or you sublet the unit and retain responsibility for your tenant.

In short, breaking a lease comes with consequences even in the best of circumstances and you could, effectively, lose your deposit and then some.

The lesson learned here: Don't sign contracts and think you can just walk away from them unscathed.

 

[Andrew Smith]

We get that we are responsible for the rent. I'm asking about the security deposit. I think he intends to keep it even if he has a new tenant and we are current with rent and there are no damages or other amounts owed.

 

[Andrew Smith]

Sounds like a long winded way of saying you don't know California Tenant / Landlord law.

He isn't required to accept the person you find.
He is required to be diligent in mitigating any damages caused by an early exit, planned or not.



The time to have asked that question is before you signed the lease.

The legality of any issue is only adjudicated upon a trial.

Proclamations of this being legal, that being illegal, are simply speculative, not definitive.






Changes to a lease are critters of contract law, not statutory fiats, although statutes can be binding on the adjudication of many disputes.

Take murder for instance, prohibited in every square mile of the USA, yet murders still occur.

Countries have laws about entering illegally, one has only to look left or right to see that sovereign borders of some nations mean nothing to some people.

On the other hand, very few people break into or out of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, do they?

 

[adjusterjack]

We get that we are responsible for the rent. I'm asking about the security deposit. I think he intends to keep it even if he has a new tenant and we are current with rent and there are no damages or other amounts owed.

Contract law doesn't allow him to profit from your breach. If he gets a new tenant immediately and keeps the deposit you can sue him for it.

Just understand that he doesn't have to lift a finger until you surrender the premises to him. From the day you move out it can still take a week or two to get a new tenant in, even under the best of circumstances, so you are going to lose part of the deposit anyway, if not all of it, to cover that period of unpaid rent.

 

[army judge]

Sounds like a long winded way of saying you don't know California Tenant / Landlord law.

I'm not the one begging for free answers regarding my security deposit because I foolishly signed a lease and was too dumb to understand the repercussions of my low IQ decisions.

Have yourself a nice day.

 

[Andrew Smith]

Here in California you sign what they give you or you don't have a place to live. The housing market is highly skewed towards the Landlord so the state acts to protect Tenants. Signing the lease was not an oversight on my part.

I will of course hire a lawyer.. but getting a sense for things on a forum seemed like an easy step. Your post does not answer my specific "California" question and turns into a long an incomprehensible post about murder etc.. good luck to you as well.

I'm not the one begging for free answers regarding my security deposit because I foolishly signed a lease and was too dumb to understand the repercussions of my low IQ decisions.

Have yourself a nice day.

 

[zddoodah]

Read this.