How to Get Out of a Lease in NYC

For one reason or another, you need to get out of your current lease, and you need to do it fast. Many New Yorkers have been in the same position as you, whether it was a job opportunity somewhere else, a family emergency, or even the sudden urge to live with their significant other. Whatever your reason, the bottom line is you need to know how to get out of a lease. Here’s the breakdown of everything you need to know.

Know What You’re Up Against

Leases exist to hold everyone accountable. By signing your lease, you assume responsibility for paying the apartment’s rent until the lease ends. By breaking your lease, you’re saying that you’ll no longer be paying rent on the apartment, leaving your landlord with a vacant rental that isn’t generating income. This is a big setback for landlords who rely on that income to provide for themselves and make a living. That’s why, to keep tenants accountable, there is:

• a fee for breaking your lease and/or
• an obligation to pay rent on the apartment until your landlord finds a new tenant

Understanding where your landlord is coming from may help you see why it’s so difficult (and expensive) for you to get out of a lease.

Read Your Lease

Every lease is different, and yours might not be the same as your friend’s or even your neighbor’s. Find your lease and read through it to see if it mentions anything about breaking a lease.

Typically, standard lease agreements include something called a “break clause” that describes the processes and conditions required of either the tenant or the landlord to legally break the lease before it ends. Our more comprehensive guide to breaking a lease describes this further. Your lease might also contain an “opt-out clause”, which states that, by paying a small fee, you are no longer responsible for making sure the rent is paid until the end of the lease. Know what your lease says before you make any moves.

How to Get Out of a Lease

Breaking a lease usually comes with a price and, whether the amount is explicitly stated in the lease or not, your landlord is likely to charge you. To avoid fees, there are a few routes you can go:

1. Talk to your landlord: If you’re in a hot market, your landlord might not be opposed to finding another tenant to fill your space. Perhaps they wanted to raise the rent anyway. Start the conversation and see where it goes; it can’t hurt to ask!
2. Offer to have a friend take over the lease: Know someone looking for a place?. Your landlord will be grateful to have a guaranteed income on their rental, and a subletter you know personally will make it even more appealing.
3. Compromise: Your landlord might not be as willing to cut you a break as you’d hoped they’d be. It’s time to negotiate. Offer to pay X amount, help them find a replacement, stage your apartment to make it more appealing, and be super flexible if they need to show your place to someone else. In turn, they would, ideally, charge no fee (or at least not an outrageous one) for breaking the lease.

Knowing how to get out of a lease is just as important as knowing why it’s so expensive and difficult in the first place. Cultivate a good relationship with your landlord and you might be able to reach an agreement that doesn’t cost you a fortune to break your lease. Just make sure to read your next apartment’s lease thoroughly so you know what to expect if you’re in this situation again.