Breaking a Lease

How many people here have apartments? Off the top of your head, do you recall anything in your lease that mentions penalties for moving out early?
I'm moving into a place with my girlfriend in a few weeks. I've signed leases and dealt with landlords in the past so I'm not completely unaware, but the lease is a year long and neither of us are able live there for the entire lease period.

Basically we were under the impression it was a six-month lease and by the time we realized it wasn't it was too late to raise the issue. Anyway, are there general options that I have in this situation, or are policies specific to each landlord? I suppose subletting is an option but I'm a little foggy when it comes to that subject.....

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Jam it back in, in the dark.

Generally there is a penalty for breaking your lease, since it's a legally binding contract. However, it's never usually as much as having to pay rent for the remainder of your term, so it's the lesser evil compared to simply paying for an apartment you're not living in.

You could sublease the apartment to potentially avoid having to pay anything extra, but that requires you finding someone that wants an apartment to stay in for only 6 months. If you're a college student, it's usually not a hard thing to do.

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Yeah that is what I figured. What confuses me is that there's an explicit bullet point in the lease that goes over the terms for vacating the premises, whose only stipulations are that notice is given 60 days in advance and that rent for the last month is paid with that notice. Since I'm not that well-versed in renting/landlord/lease lingo, I wonder if that's acceptable grounds for leaving early?

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Usually the 60 days notice is after your one year is up. I don't have my lease in front of me, but I think the penalty is usually a month or two's rent; it's still cheaper than paying the full amount on your lease.

I agree with the sublet idea, although you have to do it on the sly. Leases usually contain a clause prohibiting subletting.

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At the first apartment I lived in, I wasn't aware of that rule. They wouldn't let me break my lease because I didn't tell them within 30 days of it ending that I wouldn't want to renew. They forced me to pay a single month's rent (which is, of course, significantly higher than the month-to-month rent in a lease).

Originally Posted by Guru

You could sublease the apartment to potentially avoid having to pay anything extra, but that requires you finding someone that wants an apartment to stay in for only 6 months. If you're a college student, it's usually not a hard thing to do.

Leases in many states also stipulate that you can't sublease it.

I was speaking idiomatically.