Hi,

I feel so embarrassing asking this. I have a tenant who signed a 9 month lease and just moved in 3 months ago. Last month he decided to change his job. The new job is about one hour drive compared to 15 min drive (the last job) from the apartment. He let me know that he intended to move next week even though there are 6 months left in the lease team. In the beginning I thought I would get the judgement for the remaining 6 months but then I found out that for somehow his lease was missing :-( I never lost a single lease in my LL career. I always make 2 copies: a scanned electronic copy and a paper copy. Strangely I couldn't find neither. Does it mean that this guys is lucky and there is nothing I could do? Please advise. Thanks.

Don't you have to mitigate by trying to re-rent his unit? You may find the lease, but in the meantime advertise and tell the current tenant to have his place looking good so you can show it.

Then if you find the lease, you can show a judge you at least tried to re-rent. And who knows, maybe you'll fill the unit.

Even if you don't have the one he signed, you do have a blank, so you know what is in it, right?

It does not matter. You have a duty to mitigate the damages and try to re-rent out the property. When one of my tenants ended a year lease only after 9 months, he said that he lost his job and his girlfriend moved out and he couldn't afford the place on his own. Giving me only 3 weeks notice, I told him that HE had the duty to find a replacement tenant that I approved of.

He did nothing and did not place an ad or show the rental to anyone else.On top of that he left the property filthy.

Are you asking if can hold someone to standards of a contract that you don't even have? If you are great at bluffing - you can try. I wouldn't want to be in front of a judge pitching any crazy ideas.

I feel your pain! I've lost leases before (fortunately only temporarily)--it's a terrible thought!

Do you have an early termination clause in your lease?

I assume you have the original electronic (unsigned) version. You could always say, "Do you still have your copy of the lease? On p. 1 it states that the early termination fee is X and must be paid before move-out to properly terminate the lease."

That way you find out if HE has a copy.

Bluffing is good. How would you act if you DID have the signed copy?

If there's no early termination clause, you could always offer it to him. "Congratulations on the new job! As you're aware, you are responsible for rent and utilities until the lease ends or I am able to re-rent. Since we're heading into the winter months, it could take several months to re-rent. Rather than take that risk, if you would like to pay an early termination fee of XX, I will be willing to let you out of your lease early."

Thank you everyone for your reply.

DJ[VA], yes I have the blank one. Sadly it doesn't contain the termination fee. I always assume that he owes the remaining rent if he moves out early. Yes I'll let him know but I'm pretty sure that I'll have to go to court to get a judgement to enforce it.

Robert J[CA], thanks for sharing the story

Ray-N-Pa [PA], yes you understood it right. We are in good terms. He is trying to find someone else to take his place (sublease). However he's impatient and decided to leave even though he hasn't found his replacement.

Never lost a lease but did forget to take a copy with me once for eviction.

Still had a W2. Got tied up with a bunch of stuff and left without it.

Tenant didn't have his copy either. Judge said it was impossible to do anything without documentation.

When it was my turn to talk I asked the tenant a few questions such as how much is your rent again, when did you stop paying rent, do you remember me stating that you would be responsible for any court, collections and attorney's costs if you were evicted.

He answered all to my surprise and the judge allowed it.

Thank you everyone for your reply.