How can one get back both months of deposit? I’ve seen that a lot of contracts are cheaper if you get for 2 years rather than 1 year/6 months which i’d rather go for to save money (even though I don’t currently plan on spending a full 2 years here), but what happens if after a few months in I decide to leave earlier than expected? What are my options for getting back my full deposit?
Is it a good idea to sign a 2 year contract and save on rent per month even if I might not stay the full 2 years?
I understand if I give 1 months rent, that the landlord needs to give me one month deposit back, but what about the other month?
For example; If I find somebody to take over the contract. Are landlords normally okay with this? Are there any other ways?
You would have to read the contract. If the contract states that early termination forfeits the deposit, the landlord would generally have no reason to give back the deposit. Thatbsaid… we did have to break our lease early for family reasons, and the landlord was nice enough to give us back our full deposit. But we had a good relationship, and I would view this as an exception rather than a rule. As for subleasing or finding a new tenant to replace you–again, see the contract and don’t assume it is OK if not spelled out. I would not knowingly sign a 2 year contract to save money if I knew I would be leaving substantially sooner.
It all comes down to what’s in your lease and that’s a function of what you can negotiate. In my experience, it’s been typical for leases to state that if you want to terminate early, you have to provide 1 month’s notice and an early termination penalty equal to 1 month of rent. If you could just terminate any time without a penalty, it would effectively be a month-to-month lease.
If your lease contains an early termination penalty, any decision to waive the penalty would be at the discretion of your landlord. I wouldn’t go into a lease intending on terminating early and expecting the landlord to let you off the hook.
Isn’t this covered by tando’s response to you a couple of days ago, saying one month’s notice is now sufficient?
(I also probably wouldn’t recommend going into a contract not expecting to keep it - the lower price for longer rentals is there for a reason - but the landlords I’ve had have been quite understanding,)
1 month’s notice is sufficient unless your lease states otherwise. But I’ve personally never seen a lease that didn’t have an early termination penalty.
My prior landlord was super nice. She crossed out that condition in the contract and just said a month notice was cool. She was the only one to do this, all others had that condition. I ended up staying for years anyways.
Just to support what everyone else has been saying, the leases I’ve signed have all had a one-month penalty clause if the lease term is broken. That applies to to both the tenant and landlord (so the landlord must pay you a penalty of one month’s rent if they break the lease as well).
I might be mistaken but I believe (if I understood my last rental agent) that the laws changed a few years ago in that the maximum penalty amount is one month’s rent, whereas before landlords might try to keep the entire 2 months.
It’s up to the landlord whether they want to enforce it or not. All of my landlords, except one, have returned the full two-month deposit because we had a good relationship, I gave one month’s notice, and I left the place as good or better than when I moved in. That one exception followed the lease to the letter so there was nothing that I could do.
If I find somebody to take over the contract. Are landlords normally okay with this? Are there any other ways?
There could be; you need to speak with your landlord.