NEWMAN IN THE TIMES: ON BREAKING A LEASE

Real Estate Q & A by JAY ROMANO

Published: September 6, 2013

Nice Unit, But the Building Needs Work

Q. My boyfriend and I moved into a newly-renovated rental apartment in Brooklyn. The apartment itself is very nice, but the rest of the building is not maintained well. We’ve discovered that many of the other tenants have lived there for years and are rent-regulated. The landlord has been offering them money to leave so he can renovate the entire building and charge the kind of rent we’re paying, which is three times as much as the other tenants. It seems like the landlord is making only minimum repairs in the hope of getting some tenants to move out. We are thinking of looking for another apartment. What would be the repercussions of breaking the lease?

A. Unless you can show that you were forced to leave the apartment because the conditions were so bad that you were justified in leaving, a court would likely find you liable for the rent. “A tenant is legally obligated to pay the rent for the entire time a lease is in effect,” said Jonathan H. Newman, a Manhattan real estate lawyer. “The tenant would be well advised to discuss the situation with the owner, to see if a mutually acceptable resolution can be reached.” Depending on local market conditions, he said, it isn’t uncommon for landlords to release tenants from their leases in exchange for an agreed-upon sum — like several months’ rent and a waiver of the security deposit.

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