Breaking a multiple tenant lease with conflicting Condo board rules

[cashtary]

Hello, I am living in Washington DC and have recently encountered a dilemma in my living situation, therefore and seeking some insight:

6 months ago I signed a 1-year lease with two other tenants. I will now need to break that lease, however we are in a condo with very strict move-in/out rules. There is no subletting, and in order to have a new person move in, a new lease between the three tenants needs to be signed.

This gets complicated because only a portion on the units are rentals, and to invalidate the current lease would mean losing the spot for condo rental (there is a wait list to rent the condos out).

Basically, I want to know how much legality Board rules have in affecting leases. Should I legally be able to fin another tenant to move in under the same lease, or to take over my portion? If i break the lease, can the board invalidate it and throw out the other tenants? There was a clause in out lease about subletting, which was somewhat ingored by our landlord (she didnt enter amount). I believe she found a general lease online as the condo owner, which didnt necessarily comply with board rules.

Thanks a lot for the wisdom and insight...

 

[jharris352]

The Condo Board can absolutely ride roughshod over your lease. Worse for you, if you break the lease your landlord will be unable to mitigate damages and you may be liable for the remainder of the lease (which is unusual). If it were me and I absolutely had to move, I would probably get someone to take over my portion of the lease without changing the lease. I'm sure someone on here will blast me for such advice, but in this situation you aren't much more exposed this way than you would be if you just broke the lease.

The down side is that you are going to be directly liable as if that person isn't there. So you better be sure whoever you get pays and doesn't destroy the premises. The only reason I would consider this is that you are on the hook for this lease. Since the landlord really can't rent it out without you, you will be liable for the rent. Does that make sense?