Rental Lease Massachusetts: Fill & Download for Free

I’ve just reviewed my files of various residential leases - New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida.Not surprisingly, neither the Massachusetts or New Jersey leases provide for an early termination/escape clause - i.e., “breaking the lease.” The Florida lease document carefully spells out that even if the tenant leave before the end of the lease term set out in the agreement, the tenant is responsible for all the rent set out for the one year lease term. No “maybe’s”, no options in any of these leases.It’s not surprising because you and your landlord entered into a one-year legal contract - your benefit was that you were guaranteed uninterrupted occupancy for twelve months, and there would be no increase in rent for that 12-month period. The landlord’s benefit was that s/he had a guaranteed 12 months minimum of tenancy before having to find a new tenant for the apartment (and usually tenants stay for significantly longer than just one year).Now, 4 months of rent to break the lease sound greedy? There are costs associated with the acquisition of a tenant. It’s getting more expensive nowadays - a realtor will charge, at the very least, one month’s rent as commission for finding that tenant. Then there is the cost for a background and credit check. So there’s a built-in extra cost to the landlord of perhaps more than two month’s rent he’s out due to your breaking the lease. There is also cleaning of the apartment and making sure everything is the same as when you first occupied the premises.Then, there’s no guarantee that he will find a tenant immediately. An unanticipated vacancy means that the landlord would not have a month or two of notice before he needed to re-rent the apartment. As Donald Tepper mentions, there are locations with high demand “rental seasons” and low (to dead) demand times for finding a tenant.No, I don’t think the landlord is greedy.Other answers have suggested various negotiation strategies to try to work out with your landlord. Think about them and see if you can work out a deal. But I repeat, your landlord isn’t greedy at all - he just might break even.

You don’t “break” a lease, you terminate it, either by mutual agreement or pursuant to its terms.If your landlord has failed to provide required maintenance after written notice and due process was given pursuant to the lease, then follow the process under “Default” and send the landlord a notice that the lease will be terminated in accordance with its terms unless the required repairs are made.

There are not set laws on how soon a rental agency can start showing an apartment. Your lease may have requirements that the landlord can only show it during the last 60 days and he may be required to give you prior notice of 24-48 hours but this should be spelled out in your lease. If its not then it goes back to a provision that a landlord can not enter your apartment without your knowledge/approval unless its an emergency like a broken pipe, fire, etc...you need to read your lease. Does your lease have a clause that specifices a timeline?