Wouldn't Show My Unit

[elouise5]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Hello all! Hoping to get some insight here. I moved out of state suddenly and broke my lease when my partner got relocated because of work. I accept the consequences of my actions, but I am not sure what my landlord did to me is legal.

In my lease, it states that I must continue to pay rent until the unit is filled. That's totally normal and unsurprising, but here is the weird part.

I worked by butt off and hung up flyers, posted on Facebook, and did a paid ad on Facebook as well to help drum up potential tenants (the landlord does not do any advertising for the apartments... even a sign out front to tell you if units are available unlike any other apartment building on the street).

I found several people interested in the unit and connected them with the landlord. My landlord refused to show my unit when I moved out and would not advertise it on the site because he had other units unfilled because other people had broken their contract. That seems unfair that I filled multiple units before mine and was not released from my lease. This felt shady, so I stopped paying him. Once I stopped paying him, he quickly found a tenant within a month.

He is now putting my unpaid rent to collections. I could pay the due amount, but I worry about him continuing to do this to other college students (it is a college town and next to a university). What do you recommend I do?

 

[Just Blue]

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Hello all! Hoping to get some insight here. I moved out of state suddenly and broke my lease when my partner got relocated because of work. I accept the consequences of my actions, but I am not sure what my landlord did to me is legal.

In my lease, it states that I must continue to pay rent until the unit is filled. That's totally normal and unsurprising, but here is the weird part.

I worked by butt off and hung up flyers, posted on Facebook, and did a paid ad on Facebook as well to help drum up potential tenants (the landlord does not do any advertising for the apartments... even a sign out front to tell you if units are available unlike any other apartment building on the street).

I found several people interested in the unit and connected them with the landlord. My landlord refused to show my unit when I moved out and would not advertise it on the site because he had other units unfilled because other people had broken their contract. That seems unfair that I filled multiple units before mine and was not released from my lease. This felt shady, so I stopped paying him. Once I stopped paying him, he quickly found a tenant within a month.

He is now putting my unpaid rent to collections. I could pay the due amount, but I worry about him continuing to do this to other college students (it is a college town and next to a university). What do you recommend I do?

I would recommend that you make a decision about whether you want to continue having a ding on your credit.
If you want to force the issue, you can sue your former LL for the return of your security deposit, whereupon he will file a cross-complaint (countersuit) for the remainder of the rent due. Then a judge can decide whether and/or what you owe. The downside to this is that you may be found to owe the guy money in court, at which point you'll have a judgment on your record.

EDIT: To clarify - you would have to sue the LL in Texas, likely either in the county in which the LL resides, or in which the property is located. Your costs for traveling, etc., would not be recoverable in this suit.

 

[JakobOhio]

Honestly, I would just pay it and move on. Write an honest review if you must with your opinion.

I could see there be some type of 50/50 chance to get some money back in court based on what you written, but is it worth the time and effort? He will continue to do this to college kids because even if he loses out on some money to you in court, the other people may not ever make it to court, or take the time and effort to do so. If only 1 out of 5 sue him, he is still going to make out by continuing this shady practice

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Honestly, I would just pay it and move on. Write an honest review if you must with your opinion.

I could see there be some type of 50/50 chance to get some money back in court based on what you written, but is it worth the time and effort? He will continue to do this to college kids because even if he loses out on some money to you in court, the other people may not ever make it to court, or take the time and effort to do so. If only 1 out of 5 sue him, he is still going to make out by continuing this shady practice

It is up to you to decide. But keep in mind you are going to have to travel back to Texas to sue.

 

[Zigner]

Honestly, I would just pay it and move on. Write an honest review if you must with your opinion.

I could see there be some type of 50/50 chance to get some money back in court based on what you written, but is it worth the time and effort? He will continue to do this to college kids because even if he loses out on some money to you in court, the other people may not ever make it to court, or take the time and effort to do so. If only 1 out of 5 sue him, he is still going to make out by continuing this shady practice

In light of the duty to mitigate that Texas code places on the landlord, I think the OP has a better than 50/50 chance to get some money back:

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.91.htm

Sec. 91.006. LANDLORD'S DUTY TO MITIGATE DAMAGES. (a) A landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease.

(b) A provision of a lease that purports to waive a right or to exempt a landlord from a liability or duty under this section is void.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I don't disagree. But we have a location where several people broke their leases. Which order was the OP in this list?

@elouise5 how much money are we talking about and how far will you have to travel?

 

[JakobOhio]

In light of the duty to mitigate that Texas code places on the landlord, I think the OP has a better than 50/50 chance to get some money back:

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.91.htm

Sec. 91.006. LANDLORD'S DUTY TO MITIGATE DAMAGES. (a) A landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease.

(b) A provision of a lease that purports to waive a right or to exempt a landlord from a liability or duty under this section is void.

I think the biggest factor would be the total timeline of how long the OP was paying. I couldn't really find any concrete timeline used before in a court case and I think a landlord could reasonably justify 2 months, so I would use that as my guideline and see if it was worth it to go back and sue

 

[JakobOhio]

I don't disagree. But we have a location where several people broke their leases. Which order was the OP in this list?

@JakobOhio how much money are we talking about and how far will you have to travel?

I am not the OP. I think the advertisement may have been at a spot that made it look like I was the poster

 

[Zigner]

I think the biggest factor would be the total timeline of how long the OP was paying. I couldn't really find any concrete timeline used before in a court case and I think a landlord could reasonably justify 2 months, so I would use that as my guideline and see if it was worth it to go back and sue

I would tend to agree.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I am not the OP. I think the advertisement may have been at a spot that made it look like I was the poster

Oops, I fixed that.

 

[adjusterjack]

I could see there be some type of 50/50 chance to get some money back in court based on what you written

I disagree. The landlord has no duty to mitigate as long as the tenant is not in breach of the lease. In this case the OP left the unit but continued to pay rent in compliance with the lease provisions. The landlord had no obligation to seek a new tenant while the old tenant was still paying rent. It's when the old tenant stopped paying rent that the mitigation clock started to run. The landlord found a new tenant within a month. A month could certainly have been reasonable mitigation based on the circumstances that included having other vacant units to rent first.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I disagree. The landlord has no duty to mitigate as long as the tenant is not in breach of the lease. In this case the OP left the unit but continued to pay rent in compliance with the lease provisions. The landlord had no obligation to seek a new tenant while the old tenant was still paying rent. It's when the old tenant stopped paying rent that the mitigation clock started to run. The landlord found a new tenant within a month. A month could certainly have been reasonable mitigation based on the circumstances that included having other vacant units to rent first.

I'm not seeing where the OP continued to pay the rent. The OP wrote...

I moved out of state suddenly and broke my lease when my partner got relocated because of work.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Hello all! Hoping to get some insight here. I moved out of state suddenly and broke my lease when my partner got relocated because of work. I accept the consequences of my actions, but I am not sure what my landlord did to me is legal.

In my lease, it states that I must continue to pay rent until the unit is filled. That's totally normal and unsurprising, but here is the weird part.

I worked by butt off and hung up flyers, posted on Facebook, and did a paid ad on Facebook as well to help drum up potential tenants (the landlord does not do any advertising for the apartments... even a sign out front to tell you if units are available unlike any other apartment building on the street).

I found several people interested in the unit and connected them with the landlord. My landlord refused to show my unit when I moved out and would not advertise it on the site because he had other units unfilled because other people had broken their contract. That seems unfair that I filled multiple units before mine and was not released from my lease. This felt shady, so I stopped paying him. Once I stopped paying him, he quickly found a tenant within a month.

He is now putting my unpaid rent to collections. I could pay the due amount, but I worry about him continuing to do this to other college students (it is a college town and next to a university). What do you recommend I do?

Other than paying him off there really isn't anything you can do. He is sending it to collections instead of suing you because he knows he may lose a lawsuit. However it costs him nothing to send it to collections and knows that it will haunt you for a long time if he does.

 

[adjusterjack]

I'm not seeing where the OP continued to pay the rent.

Here:

I found several people interested in the unit and connected them with the landlord. My landlord refused to show my unit when I moved out and would not advertise it on the site because he had other units unfilled because other people had broken their contract. That seems unfair that I filled multiple units before mine and was not released from my lease. This felt shady, so I stopped paying him. Once I stopped paying him, he quickly found a tenant within a month.

My take is that OP left the unit, continued to pay while trying to market the unit without the cooperation of the LL and then stopped paying at some date after vacating. It is from that date (the breach) that the mitigation clock starts running. If mitigation efforts were reasonable under the circumstances then the OP would owe rent from the date of the breach until the date the unit was re-rented.

Would a month be reasonable? Might, might not. We don't know when this all happened. If it happened recently, getting the place rented within a month during the Covid19 debacle could certainly be reasonable. Though, in better times, a week or two might have been reasonable.