My jurisdiction is: NJ
Our tenant broke her lease by moving out 1 month prior to the end of her lease, she did pay for that month. If we could find another tenant within that month we would reimburse her for those days. We cannot. All of her belongings have been gone, all her utilities have been closed and we did a final inspection. When she picked up her deposit check, I told her to let herself into the apartment, take the check and leave the keys behind. She did. I now just received a registered letter from her stating that since I had a folding table, folding chairs, ashtray, music system & CD's in the kitchen she wants her last month payment back because we were using the apartment. She also stated that she only gave us "permission" to enter the apartment to do the final walk-through & to show it to prospective tenants. I feel that since she no longer lives there, everything has been shut off and the PSE&G bill has been in my name and the apartment is not yet rented we can enter it whenever we wish to without giving her any money back. I also feel that her final payment was to finish out the balance of her lease not because she was occupying the apartment, because she was not. Who is right? Also, when is the lease actually broken - when the last of utilities was switched from her name to mine or the day of written notification that she was going to break it?
Our tenant broke her lease by moving out 1 month prior to the end of her lease, she did pay for that month. If we could find another tenant within that month we would reimburse her for those days. We cannot. All of her belongings have been gone, all her utilities have been closed and we did a final inspection. When she picked up her deposit check, I told her to let herself into the apartment, take the check and leave the keys behind. She did. I now just received a registered letter from her stating that since I had a folding table, folding chairs, ashtray, music system & CD's in the kitchen she wants her last month payment back because we were using the apartment. She also stated that she only gave us "permission" to enter the apartment to do the final walk-through & to show it to prospective tenants. I feel that since she no longer lives there, everything has been shut off and the PSE&G bill has been in my name and the apartment is not yet rented we can enter it whenever we wish to without giving her any money back. I also feel that her final payment was to finish out the balance of her lease not because she was occupying the apartment, because she was not. Who is right? Also, when is the lease actually broken - when the last of utilities was switched from her name to mine or the day of written notification that she was going to break it?
