Comments on: My landlord wants rent on a broken lease! http://smallbusiness.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2009/03/30/my-landlord-wants-rent-on-a-broken-lease/ Editors from FSB magazine answer your pressing small-business questions. Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:52:55 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Jeffert Woo, San Francisco, CA http://smallbusiness.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2009/03/30/my-landlord-wants-rent-on-a-broken-lease/#comment-1656 Jeffert Woo, San Francisco, CA Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:07:21 +0000 http://askfsb.blogs.fsb.cnn.com/?p=992#comment-1656 I have a different take than Ms. Gardella. It is very clear regardless of what your lease may say that a landlord cannot double recover. In asserting his breach of contract claim, he must prove not only that you breached the contract, but that he was damaged. If the net damages to him were $0.00 because he re-rented immediately thereafter, he will not be prevail on his claim. That being said, the $12,000 demand may not be for future rent as you believe. Though your landlord may have been able to find a tenant immediately to mitigate his damages, he may have out of pocket damages for commissions or if the rent he is now getting is less than the rent you were obligated to pay. There also could be damages for tenant improvements, or concessions like a month's free rent that the landlord had to include as part of a lease,necssary to get the new tenant in right away. My advice would be to contact the landlord wo attempt to negotiate a deal. It is difficult to see how any landlord can affort to hire an attorney to sue for $12,000. It just would not, in general, be cost effective. Jeff Woo, Esq. www.mypropertyrights.com jeff.woo@sdma.com @jefferywoo I have a different take than Ms. Gardella. It is very clear regardless of what your lease may say that a landlord cannot double recover. In asserting his breach of contract claim, he must prove not only that you breached the contract, but that he was damaged. If the net damages to him were $0.00 because he re-rented immediately thereafter, he will not be prevail on his claim.

That being said, the $12,000 demand may not be for future rent as you believe. Though your landlord may have been able to find a tenant immediately to mitigate his damages, he may have out of pocket damages for commissions or if the rent he is now getting is less than the rent you were obligated to pay. There also could be damages for tenant improvements, or concessions like a month's free rent that the landlord had to include as part of a lease,necssary to get the new tenant in right away.

My advice would be to contact the landlord wo attempt to negotiate a deal. It is difficult to see how any landlord can affort to hire an attorney to sue for $12,000. It just would not, in general, be cost effective.

Jeff Woo, Esq.
http://www.mypropertyrights.com
jeff.woo@sdma.com
@jefferywoo

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