Breaking a Lease

If there is a month-to-month rental agreement, either the tenant or landlord can terminate the agreement at any time with just 30 days notice given to the other party prior to a regular rent payment date. If there is a weekly agreement, this notice requirement is only 7 days. (See Ohio Revised Code 5321.17)

If there is a longer, fixed-term lease (such as a one-year lease), but the tenant needs to move out before that lease ends, there are ways for the tenant to reduce or eliminate money they would owe to the landlord.

If the written lease includes a penalty fee for the tenant breaking the lease (sometimes called an “early lease termination fee”), then the tenant may have to pay this penalty fee. But the tenant can still take steps to reduce or eliminate any money they could owe in addition to the penalty fee.

How Tenants Can Reduce the Money Landlords Lose and Tenants Owe

Tenants have a legal duty to reduce the amount of money their landlord loses due to the tenant breaking the lease – and it’s in the tenant’s best interest to do this. The less money the landlord loses, the less money the tenant may owe. Here are some steps a tenant can take when they need to break a lease.

1. Give the landlord notice that you’re breaking your lease as far in advance of your departure date as possible. Give this notice in writing via a letter sent certified mail, and keep a copy for yourself.
2. In the above letter, offer to advertise and show the rental unit, and refer prospective replacement tenants to the landlord.
3. Be sure to document that you have advertised and shown the rental unit, and referred prospective replacement tenants to the landlord. (Do this even if the landlord claims you will owe them all rent payments for the remaining duration of the lease.)
4. If a replacement tenant is found and will move in on a certain date, gather any evidence you can that shows this.
5. If you and your landlord come to an agreement on the terms of your departure and any money you will or won’t owe, try to get your landlord to put this agreement in writing for you both to sign.
6. If the landlord claims you owe them all of the money for the duration of the lease, send the landlord a second letter by certified mail, explaining that the Ohio Supreme Court decision in Stern v. Taft, 361 N.E.2d 279 (Ct. App. 1976) states that the landlord has a legal duty to “mitigate damages” and can only recover “actual damages.” This means the landlord is expected to make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant as soon as possible, and the landlord can only sue the original tenant for money the landlord actually lost due to the original tenant breaking the lease. Also, according to the court ruling in Dennis v. Morgan, 89 Ohio St. 3d 417 (2000), a tenant breaking the lease “does not operate as a windfall for the landlord – the remaining rents under the agreement do not come due all at once.” A landlord may not recover rent payments for the remaining duration of the lease, since the landlord could recover rent from a replacement tenant.
7. Be sure to move out and return your keys by the departure date you gave in the letter where you first gave your landlord notice you’d be breaking the lease. 
8. Leave the rental unit in good and clean condition when you move out, and take pictures and videos showing you have done so.
9. Upon move-out, send your landlord another letter (via email that day AND via certified mail, keeping copies for yourself) stating that you have moved out, returned your keys, and left the rental unit in good condition.

Find a Subleaser

Another option (if the landlord will agree to it) is for the tenant to find a subleaser. The original tenant stays on the lease, but the subleaser lives in the rental unit and pays the rent. However, if the subleaser does not pay rent, or causes damages, then the original tenant can be held financially responsible. If a tenant who needs to break their lease decides to find a subleaser, the tenant must get written approval from the landlord and create a written sublease agreement signed by the original tenant, the subleaser, and the landlord.

Landlord Has Violated Obligations

Also, if a tenant can do both of the following:

• Show that the landlord has violated their legal responsibilities under R.C. 5321.04 
• Show that the tenant notified the landlord of the violation in writing and gave them a reasonable amount of time to fix it (usually 30 days) in accordance with R.C. Code 5321.07, but that time has passed and the landlord still has not fixed the problem

And the tenant does not owe any back rent…

Then the tenant has the right to terminate the rental agreement, and the tenant will not owe the landlord rent for any period of time after the tenant has moved-out. The landlord also should not be able to hold the tenant liable for any early termination penalty fee included as a term of the lease, and the landlord may not withhold the tenant’s security deposit in response to the tenant terminating the rental agreement. (For more information about notifying a landlord of needed repairs of landlord lease violations, click here.) 

A tenant terminating their lease for this reason should send their landlord a letter by certified mail (with the tenant keeping their own copy) notifying the landlord that the tenant is terminating the rental agreement for this reason and will move out on a specific date. Then the tenant must actually move out by that date, return their keys to the landlord, and take pictures and video to show the condition in which the tenant left the property.

Military Service

If a tenant signed their lease before beginning active-duty military service (or signed their lease after beginning active-duty service but before receiving deployment orders), and the tenant will remain on active duty for at least 90 days, then the tenant should notify their landlord by certified mail that the tenant intends to terminate the lease early and include a copy of the tenant’s military orders. This notice should be sent to the landlord at least 30 days prior to the date on which the tenant wants to end their tenancy. The tenant can then terminate their lease early without owing any penalty fee or rent after the date of termination, and the landlord may not withhold the tenant’s security deposit in response to the early termination. This is according to a federal law called the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (50 App. U.S.C.A. § § 501).

Landlord’s Duty To Mitigate Damages

Even if a tenant is not breaking their lease for either of the two reasons above, the landlord still has a legal duty to “mitigate damages,” and the landlord can only recover “actual damages.” This means the landlord is expected to make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant as soon as possible, and the landlord can only sue the original tenant for money the landlord actually lost due to the original tenant breaking the lease. This is according to the court ruling in Stern v. Taft, 361 N.E.2d 279 (Ct. App. 1976), which applies everywhere in Ohio. 

Also, according to the court ruling in Dennis v. Morgan, 89 Ohio St. 3d 417 (2000), a tenant breaking the lease “does not operate as a windfall for the landlord – the remaining rents under the agreement do not come due all at once.” A landlord may not recover rent payments for the remaining duration of the lease, since the landlord could recover rent from a replacement tenant. 

If a tenant’s written lease includes a penalty fee for breaking the lease (or “early lease termination fee”), then the tenant may owe this penalty fee. Tenants also have a duty to reduce the amount of money a landlord loses due to a tenant breaking the lease. See the section above on “How Tenants Can Reduce the Money Landlords Lose and Tenants Owe.”