So my family and I recently moved to a new city. We moved into a short 6 month rental to give us time to look for a house we wanted. We couldnt find what we wanted in the area or price during that time, so we extended our lease for a year (the landlord would only take a year long lease).

currently we are about 1/3 along through the lease, and we start seeing some house prices come down and ones that we may potentially like to buy. we know we are locked in for the year, but was curious what some potential options are if we wanted to get our of our lease before the year. should we find someone to take over our lease?

i havent had any discussions with the landlord about this.

Is there any language in the lease agreement for subleasing? Like does he prohibit it?

So looking over the lease, it appears i can sublet it or find a replacement tenant with the landlord's consent and payment to the landlord some of the first months rent for the new tenant.

it also states that the landlord could find the tenant (if they choose to) and if so, i would owe around double the first months rent once the tenant is found.

so that being said, could I work through my realitor to find a replacement tenant and time it with purchase of the house?

SirLander07 said:

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So looking over the lease, it appears i can sublet it or find a replacement tenant with the landlord's consent and payment to the landlord some of the first months rent for the new tenant.

it also states that the landlord could find the tenant (if they choose to) and if so, i would owe around double the first months rent once the tenant is found.

so that being said, could I work through my realitor to find a replacement tenant and time it with purchase of the house?

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Wouldnt life be nice if a "replacement tenant" could move-in just as you move-out? It can happen, but truthfully, you may need to prepare yourself for old rent + new mortgage for a month or two. I suppose it depends on your market, but since you are primary on the lease, you want to make sure you have a good tenant to replace you, not just anyone...

Perhaps the language of the lease will have you financially responsible for the full lease amount if you find a replacement and they fail to pay rent. That could be a baaad situation for you, if the replacement isnt screened properly.

You've done the first step that most people don't do which is read the lease to see how it is addressed. Next step is have a conversation with the landlord and explain. I wouldn't expect the landlord to take some kind of economic/risk hit with: time, rents or quality of tenant but typically you can relieve yourself of some of the lease burden but don't expect to have the perfect cutoff as one poster explained. There is going to be a cost to you for not fulfilling the lease.

Good luck!

Step one: Discuss with your landlord.

We have had people in your situation & we try to make it as painless as possible for all involved. If we can find a suitable tenant and they move in, we release you from the rest of the contract at that time. We would never allow the tenant to find a replacement. We require a 30 day notice of move-out and we'd advertise & start to show immediately. We require a FIRM move out date because a new tenant can't wait for any delays in your closing. Typically it takes at least a month for us to find someone once you move out + we have to do the make ready for the next tenant.

It's rare that it happens seamlessly - the original leaseholder is usually going to owe some money for a vacant property.