Virginia lease termination question

Commercial leases are entirely different. LL-Tenant law, unless noted otherwise within, only covers RESIDENTIAL leases and rentals. It does NOT cover commercial (unless so noted). Few states have commercial rental laws. Do some research to see if your state has any. If not, unless the lease itself gives you a cancellation clause, there is no way out. You can, however, negotiate a lease break fee with the LL if he is willing. The 3 day rule to cancel contracts applies only to sales and not to leases.

My wife and I recently moved from our first apartment on October 31st. We gave the rental office verbal notice of our moving date. Now we have received a letter thinking it was the rest of our security deposit, however we find a letter stating that we did not give notice and due to that we forfit our deposit and have to pay additional money. The employee recalls speaking with me about the situation, but the leasing manager informed us that we needed to submit that in writting. Well if the employee would have informed us, we would have had no issue in doing so. Should we have to pay for a clerical error??

You always give notice to vacate in writing. Otherwise it is just your word versus the LL whether you gave this notice or not. As you have now found out, without written notice to vacate, the LL can claim you never gave notice at all. Did your lease tell you to give notice in writing? Read it. If it did, you have little recourse.

I suggest you speak to the manager and let him know that you gave your notice to the employee in the office. If the employee backs you up, he may relent. Chances are she didn't write down your notice to vacate and the manager had no idea you were moving. If the employee says she can't remember, you learned an expensive lesson.

Question - I have a tenant who signed a one-year lease on a house in Northern VA and wants to terminate after only 6 months. The lease has a military clause but the tenant is not military. I believe that under the lease and VA law I am aloud to continue collecting rent until such time that the lease expires or I find a new tenant (given that I diligently search for a new tenant). Thoughts?

If the tenant is not military and has no orders to reassign him to a new post or active duty overseas, that clause means nothing to him. (BTW - you don't need to include this clause - it is federal law under the Soldiers Relief Act.)

VA law says you have to take reasonable steps to promptly re-rent the unit. When the law says this, expect a judge to give you a couple of months of rent at most. Most judges expect you to be able to re-rent within that period of time. It is doubtful that a judge would let you continue to collect rent until the lease expires, no matter how diligent your efforts. Plan on 1-2 months of rent awarded to you. Keep careful records of all efforts to re-rent in order to maximize the amount of lost rent awarded to you by the judge.

I signed a 3 year lease in June 2007. I am getting a divorce now and have moved out of the townhouse. I am paying the rent as spousal support until the divorce is final (June/July 2009). I have notified the LL of our situation and he is going to list the townhouse now. I cannot afford the townhouse after the divorce due to tax status changes and a pay cut and my wife is moving to another state because she cannot afford to live here being single. If he cannot rent it by June/July 2009, how much am I on the hook for?

To the last poster: That depends on the state the rental is in. Some states have laws that say the LL must try and re-rent the unit. In those states, many courts will limit your liability for rent to a few months. The judges believe this is a fair amount of time for a LL to be able to find a new tenant. Other states' laws say the LL has no duty to try and re-rent the unit and it can just sit vacant (with you paying the rent ) for that period. Either way, your obligation ends whern the unit is re-rented.

Since the LL stated that he will list the unit now, that is a good sign that he will re-rent the unit as soon as possible. Please list your state and I can tell you his obligation to re-rent.

Generally, your obligation is to pay: rent until the unit is re-rented, any utilities your lease says you were responsibile for, any fees or fines you owe the LL (such as for late rent or NSF fees), damages to the unit beyond wear & tear, agent fees if he uses one to find a new tenant, advertising fees, and any other unreimbursed costs the LL suffers because you break your lease.

Thanks for the info. I live in Va.