Future Rent And a Landlord's Obligation to Mitigate Damages
Published 2/2/2016
Your resident has now either skipped before the lease term expired or vacated at the expiration of the lease term without giving written notice. Whether the unit is a mess or completely empty, what are your obligations in regards to re-renting the unit? Is the resident responsible for future rent once the unit is re-rented?
When your resident signed the lease, the resident is obligated to pay rent for the entire lease term. Although the resident may pay monthly rental installments, it doesn’t change the fact that the resident owes the entire amount. However, if your resident split early or without giving written notice at the end of the lease term, you cannot simply sit back and wait for the term to end, then sue the resident for the months he/she/they weren’t there. In Utah, you have a duty to mitigate your damages. But what does that mean? Will your tenant be responsible for future rent?
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