Landlord Breaking the Lease - Houston, Texas

I signed a leasing contract about a month ago to rent my house to some expats for a year. They are supposed to move in July 1st, however I need to break the lease since I found out the bank wants to refinance my home and I can't lease it if I want to refinance. I don't want to lose the opportunity to get a better APR and better monthly payments. Could the tenants sue me? Could they make me leave my house? Please help me, because the real state agent is telling me I will be in a very big legal problem and I could even lose my house. I currently live in Houston, Texas.

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that you may terminate your lease by giving notice to your tenant. As per Texas Property Code Section 91.001, it requires a one month notice. In this regard, if any benefit like rent in advance etc. has been obtained by you from tenant then that benefit will have to be returned. Further, the provision of your lease agreement regarding termination of lease may be followed.

AFF

Thank you for your quick response!

You know better than that AFFA! That answer is not correct nor legal. That 30 day notice is only for month to month tenants. Not tenants with a signed lease. If that was a term lease you signed with them for any period other than one month, you have a signed legal contract that you cannot break. If that is the case, then yes, the tenants can sue you to enforce the contract. I suggest you refund their money immediately, apologize, and tell them you are unable to rent per the bank's regulations (and hope they don't decide to sue). You can only legally terminate this is if you signed a month to month agreement with them. If you signed a term lease for a year (or some other term), you are obligated.

So Unregistered... can you reply to the question at hand? How can one break the lease as a Landlord?

I'm not the original unregistered poster, but the unregistered person is right, and AFFA is incorrect.

The only way you can legally break the lease is to sweeten the deal for the tenant by offering money. Generally, you are inconveniencing the tenant because now they have to look for another place, but the good thing is that their lease was not going to begin until July 1st.

You may want to try this approach first:
1. Tell them there is a problem with the bank (no need to go into details) and you cannot honor the lease and offer to return ALL their money. They (and you too) will have to sign a legal document saying the lease is terminated or some such thing to protect you. Do not return the money until you have the signed legal document.

2. If they balk at #1, then you may have to sweeten the deal and then offer them an extra month's rent for their time and trouble. Same thing with the signed document stuff.

3. If they don't go for #1 or #2, you're stuck because you and they signed a legally binding document. Yes, they could sue you. Yes, they could make you leave your house. You need to make this right, and it's likely to cost you some money, but really, that would be a small price to pay just to avoid the problems and trouble and legal fees and court costs you would accrue if push comes to shove.

If the real estate agent was the person who got you these tenants, well, that's money out of his or her pocket too and even more if they are the property management company. You may have to give him/her some money for lost income or whatever.

[Friend In Court]

In order for a landlord to break a lease with a tenant, he would have to offer enough to make it worth the tenant's while. A month or so's rent, moving costs, whatever it takes to be enough incentive for the tenant to move.

Leases are binding encumbrances against property and a tenant has every right to hold the landlord to the leases in all its terms and conditions.

Perhaps Pinky and Friend in Court failed to notice the date the original OP asked his/her question?

I'm sure the matter has long since been resolved since 2010.

Originally Posted by Unregistered Perhaps Pinky and Friend in Court failed to notice the date the original OP asked his/her question? I'm sure the matter has long since been resolved since 2010.

OMG, you're right! I certainly DID fail to notice the post's date!

I HATE NECROPOSTING because I generally do NOT check the date, so I go happily on my way, trying to post something helpful! What a fool, me!

It does make me wonder if the PTB on this site pull up old posts just to make the forum look more active.

Very disappointing...perhaps a suggestion for the PTB who run this site would be to have old posts scroll off and not be re-activated at all...but if anyone wants to read an old post, they can then find that old post (or a post they were following) to read rather than re-viving the darn thing.

Reviving is so lame.

[Friend In Court]

Originally Posted by Unregistered Perhaps Pinky and Friend in Court failed to notice the date the original OP asked his/her question? I'm sure the matter has long since been resolved since 2010.

I noticed the date. Sometimes one may answer a question because it comes up often and previous answers could have been more clear or definitive.