What do you do with last month's rent when someone breaks the lease?

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IdaChik

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If someone has a 12 month's lease and breaks it (i.e. moves out a couple of months before it is up, in May instead of August). Do you apply the last month's rent they gave to you (the landlord) initially to the last month they are in the house? Does it cover May's rent?

Someone told me that it is for whatever that last month was originally (i.e. August) and that by moving out early they forfeit it and they still owe rent on the last month they are in the house (May). But that doesn't seem fair.
 
Last month is for last month.

You know what you need to do.

The opeartive word you used in your last sentence, FAIR.
 
You need to make a good faith effort to rent the place to someone else. If you are able to get someone in there before the end of the month (and are not actually out anything) then you need to refund the deposit. You can deduct from the deposit any advertising costs you incur, I believe.
If after a good faith effort you are not able to get somebody to rent the apartment THEN you are allowed to keep the deposit.
If somebody comes in mid-month then you may still owe a prorated portion of the deposit.
That said, if the person knowingly left early, they may not be expecting to get that deposit back anyway....
 
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