Form 29: Landlord-Tenant Agreement to Terminate Lease

• Jurisdiction: United States

Form 29: Landlord-Tenant Agreement to Terminate Lease

If you're a tenant with a long-term lease, ideally you'll have a lease for just the amount of time you need the rental. Sometimes, though, despite your best efforts to plan ahead, you might want to move before your lease is up.

One option is simply to move out early. Leaving before a fixed-term lease expires, without paying the remainder of the rent due under the lease, is called breaking the lease. With a little luck, it may not cost you much—in most states, the landlord is required to take reasonable steps to rerent the property. If the landlord does so (and doesn't attempt to hide the fact that there's now a new rent-paying tenant), your financial liability will be limited to paying the rent for the brief time the unit was vacant.

Nevertheless, if you plan to leave early, you don't just have to move out and hope your landlord gets a new tenant quickly. For a variety of...