List the unit. Today, before you work out what the tenant owes, because in most states the size of that number depends on how quickly you re-rent and on being able to show you tried.
California puts it plainly. A landlord may recover unpaid rent earned before termination, the rental loss after it, and other damages caused by the breach, reduced in each case by the amount the tenant proves could have been reasonably avoided (Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.2). Most states apply some version of that rule.
First, check whether this departure is protected
Some early terminations are permitted by statute, and billing for them is a mistake with its own consequences.
The common categories: active duty military relocation under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and, in many states, a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Some states add early termination rights for a tenant entering long-term care, or where the unit is uninhabitable.
Each of those has documentation requirements and its own notice mechanics. Verify the category before you decide anything, and ask your attorney if the answer is not obvious.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and local ordinances vary. Confirm current requirements with your city, county, or an attorney before you act.
What you can usually recover
Four buckets, and only the first is straightforward.
- Rent already unpaid at the point the tenancy ended.
- Rent lost after that, up to the end of the term, less what you collect from a replacement tenant and less anything a court decides you could reasonably have avoided.
- Actual re-rental costs: listing fees, screening, cleaning beyond ordinary turnover, the cost of showing the unit.
- Damage beyond normal wear, which is a deposit question rather than a lease-break question. Normal wear and tear vs damage draws that line.
What you generally cannot recover is the full remaining rent as a lump sum while the unit sits empty by choice. That is the trap in bucket two, and it is where most of the money is.
The flat penalty clause problem
Many leases carry a clause charging two months’ rent for early termination. It is popular because it is simple, and in several states it is vulnerable.
California treats liquidated damages in a residential lease as void unless fixing the actual damage would be impracticable or extremely difficult and the amount is a reasonable pre-estimate of it (Cal. Civ. Code § 1671(d)). A flat number set without reference to what a break actually costs is exactly what that provision is aimed at.
A clause that tracks reality holds up better and often collects more: rent until the unit is re-rented, plus documented re-rental costs, with the landlord obliged to make reasonable efforts to re-rent. It is less tidy to write and much easier to defend. Key clauses every lease agreement needs covers where it sits in the document.
Do the arithmetic before you negotiate
A tenant who wants out will usually pay something to get out. What that something should be is a calculation, not a feeling.
Take the remaining months of rent. Subtract what you expect to collect from a replacement tenant, which on a unit that fills in three weeks is nearly all of it. Add your real re-rental costs. The result is often one to two months of rent, which is why that number appears in so many leases, and it is a defensible ask precisely because you can show the work.
Then compare it to the alternative. A tenant who leaves cooperatively, cleans, and lets you show the unit while they are still in it is worth more than a tenant you are fighting with. A short written agreement that trades a modest payment for cooperation frequently nets more than a claim for a larger amount you have to chase. How to write a lease termination letter covers the mutual termination document.
Re-rent properly, and keep the record
Your duty is to make reasonable efforts, not to accept the first offer or to re-rent at a loss. What that looks like in practice:
- List within days, at a rent comparable to what the departing tenant paid, adjusted for the market
- Apply the same screening criteria you use for any applicant, because a rejected applicant is only defensible against a written standard
- Keep the record: listing dates, inquiries, showings, applications, and what happened to each one
- Do not upgrade the unit and then bill the difference. Improvements you chose to make are not the tenant’s cost.
That record is the whole ballgame if the tenant later argues you could have avoided the loss. A landlord who can produce dated listings and a showing log is in a different position than one who says the unit was hard to rent.
The deposit is a separate question
Applying the deposit to a lease break is not automatic and is not permitted everywhere in the way landlords assume. Keeping a deposit when a tenant breaks the lease covers where that line sits, and the deposit return clock keeps running regardless of any dispute about the term. In California the timeline and the itemization requirements sit on the move-out and deposit return page.
Handle the two separately, in writing. A single letter that mixes a deposit accounting with a lease-break demand tends to produce a dispute about both.
The version that goes well
A tenant tells you in month four that a job is taking them out of state. You list the unit that week, agree in writing that they will keep it show-ready and pay rent until a replacement takes possession, and you fill it in nineteen days.
They owe nineteen days of rent and your listing costs, the deposit is returned on the normal timeline, and nobody hires anybody. That outcome is available in most lease breaks, and it starts with listing the unit before starting the argument. Leasing and e-sign is where the next lease begins, and the sooner the current one has an end date, the sooner that can happen.