How Early Lease Termination Works in Washington

How Lease Agreements Work in Washington

A lease agreement in Washington State is a legally binding contract between two or more parties. Typically, these contracts consist of the landlord (lessor) and the tenant (lessee). However, a third party may also be a participant during the lease. The lease may be residential or commercial, depending on the agreement and type of property being leased. In any case, the lease agreement will detail all rights, duties, and obligations each party has. It may also provide additional information about the monetary amounts owed .
The basic components of a lease agreement are: names of the lessor and lessee, the description of the property being leased, the amount owed for the lease, what happens if a party terminates the lease early, and the signature to the contract. All of this information can be found on a lease agreement and can be reviewed with an attorney or other interested parties.
Before ever thinking about early termination, an individual must first understand all aspects of the lease agreement itself. Early termination of a lease occurs when one party fails to comply with the full terms of the lease. However, a party may not fully comply with the lease and terminate it prior to the expiration date. That would constitute an early termination of the lease.

Legal Bases for Early Lease Termination

In Washington State, a tenant may have the right to terminate a lease early for several reasons, provided they can prove the circumstances are true. The law accepts three circumstances as legal grounds for early termination of a lease: military service, domestic violence, and a substantial violation of the rental agreement by the landlord or secondary obligations, such as rental statutes.
Military Service
If you have signed a lease and are later called to active duty, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) entitles you to early lease termination. The law applies to all members of the uniformed services including national guard, reserve, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, and the commissioned service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Services Administration. In order to meet the requirements of USERRA, you must be notified of your call to active duty after you sign the lease. You must provide the landlord with a copy of your orders or a letter from your commanding officer at least 30 days before your termination.
Domestic Violence
Washington state law allows survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, unlawful harassment, or stalking to leave a rental agreement early, if they and/or their children are the victims of the abuse. You must 1) have an order for protection in effect that excludes the person who is abusing you; 2) provide ethical proof of domestic violence, such as a police report or letter from a domestic violence agency, or; 3) give notice of intent to vacate that is accompanied by the appropriate proof.
Substantial Violation of Rental Agreement
Washington law recognizes that a legal dispute between a tenant and a landlord can occasionally be so severe that it triggers the right of the tenant to terminate the rental agreement. For this reason, a tenant may terminate a rental agreement if the landlord has substantially violated the lease agreement. The violation must impact the health and safety of the tenant and must include material non-compliance with rental agreements or with relevant rental statutes.
In Washington, a "material violation" occurs when a landlord fails to comply with obligations for the maintenance of a dwelling unit or fails to comply with other duties under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RLTA).
If a violation occurs, the tenant must provide the landlord with notice of the intention to terminate the rental agreement by the 14th day following the giving of required notice.

Tenant Obligations and Possible Penalties

When undertaking a lease early termination agreement, the tenant has the ultimate burden of paying the remaining rent under the lease. However, there could also be penalties associated with breaking a lease early as well. The most common types of penalties seen in residential leases are rent acceleration and forfeiture of the security deposit. For commercial leases, of course, all bets are off; the damages found in such a lease are only limited by what the parties agree to.
Under a rent acceleration clause, the remaining balance of rent due under the lease is due as a lump sum payment at the date of termination. For example, if a tenant was obligated to pay $1,000 per month for six months, rent acceleration would treat the lease as a mere obligation to pay $6,000 as one lump sum.
Another common penalty is a forfeiture of the security deposit. However, unless it is explicitly written into the lease that the deposit will be forfeited for an early termination, it is unlikely that a court would award such a penalty.
In addition, State law also allows for the recovery of attorneys’ fees for a breach of the lease. Washington Courts have held that the obligation to pay attorneys’ fees by the leaseholder is limited by what that property’s rental value is.

How to Lawfully End a Lease Early

Step 1: Communicate with Your Landlord in an Open and Honest Manner

If you know that the lease will be ending early, it is best to communicate with the landlord as soon as possible. A good intentioned tenant will assist the landlord with the process of getting a replacement tenant into the unit. The tenant’s position is likely to be the best position to assist the landlord with both getting a new tenant in, and possibly even helping with the costs of getting the tenant in (if it is a good faith early termination).
The landlord’s position, obviously, is usually that the tenant should either complete the term of the lease, or move out on the last day of the lease. Depending on the reason for the early termination, the landlord may require the tenant to be responsible for any vacancy time and/or other costs associated with the lease termination.
Unlike some states, Washington does not have a "statutory" requirement that landlords have to honor termination notices given by the tenant. Be sure that you have familiarized yourself with the State law, as well as the rental agreement terms to determine whether notice is required and how that notice should be given.

Step 2: Check Your Rental Agreement Terms

Additional notice required, or notice requirements in conflict with applicable statutory provisions, may make it necessary to amend the rental agreement. Having an addendum signed by both the landlord and tenant may be the best option. This may include a waiver of any rights and obligations of the lease, or it could include a rental concession offered by the owner/landlord (such as the waiving rents that would have been received by the landlord during the vacancy period, so long as the tenant looks to complete the lease obligations).

Step 3: Have the Tenant or a DUI Attorney Complete the Early Lease End Negotiation

Tenants may find that when they provide notice, the landlord may be willing to negotiate an early termination that does not require court intervention. Because tenants typically have a bond or security deposit as a form of protection or guarantee for their performance under the lease, they must be sure that they know whether the bond/security plan will be impacted by their early termination, and if so, by how much.

Step 4: Make Sure All Parties, Including Guarantors, Agree to the Early Lease Termination

During the process, it is important that the tenant determine whether anybody else may be responsible for the lease, and that they notify them of the negotiations taking place with the owner/landlord to terminate the original lease. If there is a problem with the bond or lease security, this should be addressed with the tenant as well, and recognized by the owner/landlord in the modification or early lease termination.

Dealing with Your Landlord

Try for a Mutual Agreement
You should start the process of negotiating a mutual termination of your lease agreement as early as possible. The earlier you are willing to bring the issue to your landlord, the more likely the landlord will be able to accommodate your wish to extricate yourself from the lease. If it is one or two months before your lease expires and you are just now informing your landlord that you wish to terminate your lease early, your landlord is much less likely to permit you to terminate without finding a replacement tenant, if at all.
It is important not to wait until the last moment to notify your landlord of your intent to vacate the property, because there is a period in which the landlord must continue advertising the property to find a replacement tenant. That period is around 60 days for most leases in western Washington. If you are wanting to terminate in September, but do not notify your landlord until September 1st that you want out, your landlord may be unwilling to grant your request because it would not be permitted to list the property until September 2nd – right when you are attempting to move out of the property.
Be Upfront
It is always best to be upfront about your intentions to terminate your lease with your landlord. If you value honesty, your landlord will too , and honesty is the best policy. It is not illegal for you to inform your landlord that you wish to vacate the property, and it is not illegal for your landlord to ask you if they can add a month’s rent to your final rent payment, provided that the amount is explicitly listed as "rent" on your final bill, not as a "fee" or any other euphemism. However, if you are able to have a frank and upfront discussion with your landlord, it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run, and it can let your landlord try to find a way to break the lease that is mutually beneficial to both parties.
Mutual Benefits
One common way that a landlord can help facilitate your early release from your lease is to agree to not charge you any damages or fees. If you are agreeable to this, a tenant may end up saving money in exchange for a small wiggle-room to break the lease. Getting a landlord to agree to not charge additional fees is difficult, though, because it is designed to be a potential source of profit for the landlord.
If you are able to negotiate with your landlord and come to a mutually acceptable resolution, then you win. The landlord may not want to lose you as a tenant, and that can go either way. Maybe it will be a simple discussion. Maybe you can get your landlord to drop the extra "fee". Maybe you’ll be able to compromise on your original complaint, and your landlord will allow you to break the lease early.

Financial and Legal Factors

Calculating how much you could owe the landlord requires a careful examination of the lease terms to determine whether a tenant is responsible for lease cancellation fees or for paying the remaining rent due under the lease. The lease may state that the tenant must pay the amount due in full or provide a true source of funding and best efforts to mitigate damages by leasing the property again or selling it. If the lease does not specify the tenant’s responsibilities for early termination, then a judgment from the local District Court Clerk’s Office may order "damages" or "compensatory damages." It is important to find out if the District Court where the suit was filed considers them to be the same thing. This will help you know if you’re facing eviction or if a lawsuit will have to be filed — or if a judgment against you could be registered against your credit or bank accounts.
There can be big differences between dealing directly with the landlord and with a management company. With the former, an open conversation can help you work out an early termination. However, management companies may be required to follow contractual rules including withholding the re-letting fee even where the property is re-leased — or even if the property was never re-leased. In these circumstances the tenant does not appear to be a priority for the management company, and the application of the landlord-tenant law may be secondary to the terms of the management company’s contract with the landlord. This is something we run into often in the greater Seattle area, especially in King County, but it is also true in other counties in Washington State.

Washington State Tenant Resources

For those seeking guidance on this or other matters related to their housing situation, there are a number of organizations, ranging from government agencies to advocacy groups, that offer free legal assistance to landlords and tenants. The Northwest Justice Project (NJP) is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income individuals and families in a range of fields, including housing. Their Housing Justice Project can deliver online forms and instructions or, in certain circumstances, sign up applicants to receive representation if a case has a reasonable chance of success. Within NJP, the Washington LawHelp program serves as a free resource that connects low-income individuals with government and nonprofit agencies that provide free civil legal services. With an office in every county in Washington , LawHelp operates a helpline and online Support Centers that help guide tenants through the process of preparing and filing documents, starting with an intake interview to determine what resources are available to each individual. In King County specifically, the Housing Justice Project and LawHelp also operate the Housing Justice Project Kiosk, which provides low-income individuals with a self-help kiosk that can direct them to processes related to evictions and other housing issues. The kiosk currently only supports the eviction process, relying on other sources for information on foreclosure, bankruptcy, and fair housing.