Leaving before our new lease starts

[MrMelkor]

We have lived in our apartment complex for two years, and in May signed a new lease to begin July 2 because we didn't have the money to find a new place. They raised our rent a little, but not so much as to be a problem......except that I've been laid off and my wife got a drastic pay cut. It is now impossible for us to pay rent and have money for anything else like electricity or food.
We talked to the management and basically were told "good luck and see you in court!" I realize that we signed a legal and binding contract, and am not all that surprised to find that this is their attitude, though we did expect them to offer to give us a fee and let us go since the new lease hasn't started yet and we've been model tenants for two years.
Later today we'll be bringing them an official intent to vacate letter to have them sign, including a request to re-rent the unit ASAP after we leave. Since we're giving them this, can they still evict us if we are no longer on the property, have informed them of this, and returned our keys to them? We've also contacted the parent company because of the overly hostile manner of the employee we spoke to (even before we said anything besides "hello) in the hopes that maybe we simply caught someone in a bad mood who thought she could threaten and bully us into trying to stay.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

The comment regarding "see you in court" does not mean that management was going to evict you (although they might go that route should you remain in the rental unit and fail to pay the rent).

What management might do if you break the lease is sue you for the remaining months on the lease until they are able to find a tenant to take your place. While they are under a legal obligation to make the attempt to rerent the unit (i.e., they cannot sit on their hands for the next year expecting you to continue to pay rent on a place you no longer live in), you would owe rent until another tenant can be found.

Have you discussed the possiblity of subletting the rental unit; you remaining in the unit and attempting to find a tenant to take over your lease?

Gail

 

[MrMelkor]

Thank you for answering so quickly! The "see you in court" was me paraphrasing them saying flat out that they'd evict us on the 10th if we don't pay rent (which we can't). This place is also fairly desperate for new residents and has a terrible reputation and is very much overpriced so subletting would be difficult at best and pretty much impossible in the next three days.
Things have been really hard for us lately and we were hoping to resolve this somehow without going to court and having an eviction on our record (though how it can be an eviction when we're not there I'm not sure). Our lease does state that we'll be responsible for the cost of advertising and such until it's re-rented. Does anyone know how this is calculated, and is there any way to know if they rent an identical unit before this one after we leave (making us continue to pay despite the fact that they could have rented it)?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

It's impossible to determine what management might do if you two simply decide to leave. Some landlords will go through the eviction process simply to ensure that the rental unit is, legally, back under their control. Some will go through this so that if they find the former tenant at a later time, the door is still open for them suing for owed rent. Still others will not bother with the court system at all; they may turn the issue over to a collection agency or focus on getting the unit back into rental shape and moving on.

How much advertising costs will be depends on what source they use. Sources such as www.craigslist.com are free advertising.

Unfortunately, management is not legally obligated to rent out your unit before others that are empty.

As a (very) general rule the court tends to give landlords/management about two months to get a unit back in rental order and find new tenants. Thus, if they ever sue you later, this is typically the amount they go for.

It's important not to have an eviction history on your credit record as it may make it more difficult for you to find landlords willing to rent to you in the future.

Gail

 

[MrMelkor]

Again, thank you SO much for your help. While they seem to be trying to make this as unpleasant as possible for us, it's good to know that they can't in actuality do all the things they were threatening to do when we told them we were leaving. We'll just have to do our best to make sure there are no antagonistic actions on our part and hope for the best.