What’s the point in a lease?

[Barney Davis]

I have a tenant that signed a two year lease and is wanting out after the first year due to a pregnant wife. I discounted the rent from $1400 to $1350 if they signed a two year lease. I have a $1350 deposit. This happened before and a lawyer told me there’s not much I can do. So my question is, what’s the point in having a lease contract if they can just change their mind???

[Theresa Harris]

What is the penalty for breaking the lease?  Often they are responsible for the rent until a replacement tenant can be found (and you need to do your best to find one in a timely fashion).  In the future if you do any discounts for a longer term lease (not a good idea unless you build in rent increases to the lease), do them at the very end of the lease.  So in this case their 24th month of rent would have been $150 and all of the other months $1400.