Break Lease Cost Calculator

The short answer

Breaking a lease usually costs one of three things: the early termination fee in your lease, rent until the landlord re-rents your place, or (at worst) the rest of the lease. With $2,000 rent and 6 months left, that’s about $4,000 if the unit is re-rented in 2 months, and up to $12,000 if it never is.

Which one applies depends on your lease and your state’s law. The calculator puts the scenarios side by side so you know the range before you talk to your landlord.

How to use the calculator

1. Rent and months left. Count the full months between your move-out and the end of the lease.
2. Early termination fee. Look for a buyout, early termination or liquidated damages clause in your lease. Leave it at $0 if there isn’t one.
3. Months until it’s re-rented. This is your own estimate. Look at how long similar units nearby stay listed, or ask the landlord how fast they usually fill a vacancy.
4. Re-renting costs. Only enter advertising or re-letting fees your lease says the landlord can charge you.
5. Security deposit. The calculator shows what you’d owe if the whole deposit went toward the cost, as a separate column.

Use Copy link to save your numbers before you call or write to your landlord.

How we calculate

This is our own scenario model, not a legal formula:

• Pay the early termination fee: the fee in your lease. Your lease decides whether rent through a notice period or other charges come on top.
• Pay rent until it’s re-rented: monthly rent × the months the unit sits empty (never more than the months left), plus any re-renting costs.
• Pay the rest of the lease: monthly rent × the months left. This is the most you could owe in rent.
• You find a replacement tenant: only the re-renting costs, if someone takes over the lease from the day you leave.

The result highlights the lowest of the first three. It doesn’t decide which one your landlord can actually charge; your lease and your state’s law do.

Worked examples

Example: No fee in the lease, six months left

What we know

• Rent: $2,000 a month
• Months left after moving out: 6
• No early termination fee in the lease
• Months until re-rented (estimate): 2

How it works out

1. Pay rent until it's re-rented: $2,000 × 2 months = $4,000.
2. Pay the rest of the lease: $2,000 × 6 months = $12,000.

About $4,000 to $12,000, depending on the lease and how fast the unit is re-rented.

Example: A lease with a two-month fee

What we know

• Rent: $1,600 a month
• Months left after moving out: 8
• Early termination fee in the lease: $3,200
• Months until re-rented (estimate): 3
• Re-renting costs in the lease: $300

How it works out

1. Pay the early termination fee: $3,200.
2. Pay rent until it's re-rented: $1,600 × 3 months + $300 re-renting costs = $5,100.
3. Pay the rest of the lease: $1,600 × 8 months = $12,800.

About $3,200 to $12,800, depending on the lease and how fast the unit is re-rented.

Example: Two months left on the lease

What we know

• Rent: $1,800 a month
• Months left after moving out: 2
• No early termination fee in the lease
• Months until re-rented (estimate): 3

How it works out

1. Pay rent until it's re-rented: $1,800 × 2 months = $3,600.
2. Pay the rest of the lease: $1,800 × 2 months = $3,600.

About $3,600 to $3,600, depending on the lease and how fast the unit is re-rented.

Does your landlord have to re-rent your place?

In many states, the landlord has to try. This is called the duty to mitigate damages:

• Texas law (Property Code 91.006) says a landlord “has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease,” and a lease clause that waives it is void.
• Illinois law (735 ILCS 5/9-213.1) says the landlord “shall take reasonable measures to mitigate the damages.”
• New York law (Real Property Law 227-e) requires reasonable and customary efforts to re-rent at fair market value. The state courts’ law librarians add that you keep paying rent until the landlord finds someone to take over.
• Minnesota law says that when a tenant abandons a unit during the lease, “the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental value” (Minnesota Statutes 504B.154), and the Attorney General’s handbook adds that once a new tenant is found, the tenant who left owes no further rent.
• California limits what a landlord can recover to the rent loss that couldn’t reasonably have been avoided (Civil Code 1951.2), with exceptions the lease can set.

Not every state works this way. Georgia’s tenant handbook says that, unless the lease says otherwise, the landlord “can allow the unit to remain empty and hold the tenant responsible for rent through the end of the lease.” Florida law (Statutes 83.595) lets the landlord choose among several remedies, including an early termination fee of up to 2 months' rent, which you must have agreed to in a separately signed addendum with no more than 60 days of notice.

Ways to leave without paying the rest of the lease

• Military orders. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a servicemember with orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of at least 90 days can end a residential lease. Deliver written notice and a copy of the orders. A lease with monthly rent ends 30 days after the next rent due date, rent is prorated, and the landlord can’t charge an early termination fee.
• Domestic violence. The National Housing Law Project counted 40 states with early lease termination laws for survivors as of September 2023. The rules differ by state, so check your state’s statute or a local legal aid office. In housing covered by federal programs, the Violence Against Women Act also provides emergency transfers to another unit.
• A replacement tenant. Ask the landlord in writing to approve someone to take over the lease and to release you from it. A sublet usually leaves you responsible for the rent.
• A written agreement. You can offer to agree on a move-out date and a fixed payment. Get any deal in writing before you stop paying rent.

Before you hand back the keys

Tell your landlord in writing that you’re leaving and when, and keep a copy: the break lease letter asks to leave early, or gives notice with military orders. Take dated photos of every room on the way out, return all keys and give a forwarding address for your deposit. Keep paying rent until you have a written agreement that says you can stop.