Breaking a lease in California

If a tenant breaks the lease and leaves early, you can recover the rent for the rest of the term only to the extent the tenant cannot prove the loss could reasonably have been avoided, so you are expected to try to re-rent.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.2(a)

• A tenant may end the tenancy with written notice and supporting documentation if the tenant, a household member or an immediate family member was the victim of an act or crime listed in 1946.7. The section allows notice within 180 days of the qualifying order, report or act, or within the notice period described in 1946. The rent obligation is no more than 14 calendar days after notice, or an appropriate shorter period under 1946 or the rental agreement. Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.7(a), (d), (e)
• The written notice may attach a qualifying protective order, a law-enforcement report, documentation from a qualified third party using the statutory statement, or other documentation that reasonably verifies the listed act or crime. A police report is not the only option. Information provided under this section may be disclosed only with the tenant's written consent or when law or a court order requires it; checking the contents with the qualified third party is allowed. Cal. Civ. Code section 1946.7(b), (i)
• For a qualifying termination, rent is prorated if the home is relet before the tenant's remaining rent obligation ends. The landlord may not require forfeiture of a deposit or advance rent because of the termination, and the termination itself is not a lease breach. Other deposit rules still apply. Cal. Civ. Code section 1946.7(e), (f)
• The release covers the qualifying tenant and members of that tenant's household; it does not automatically release every other tenant who signed the lease. A household member here means a family member living in the same unit. If the qualifying immediate family member lived elsewhere and no part of the act or crime occurred in or within 1,000 feet of the tenant's home, the notice also needs the written relocation statement required by subsection (c). Cal. Civ. Code section 1946.7(c), (g), (h)

To end a month-to-month tenancy, an owner must give written notice at least 60 days before the termination date, or at least 30 days if any tenant or resident has lived in the unit less than one year. A tenant must give notice at least as long as the rental period, which is 30 days for a monthly tenancy.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1(b), (c) Cal. Civ. Code § 1946(a)

• An owner may give 30 days' notice to sell a separately alienable unit to a natural person who will live there for at least a year, if escrow was opened no more than 120 days before the notice and the other conditions of the section are met. Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1(d)
• An owner's notice must include the statutory statement that former tenants may reclaim abandoned personal property, and you may not charge the tenant for serving it. Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1(h), (i)
• After 12 months of occupancy, a covered tenancy can end only for a just cause stated in the notice. Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.2(a) See Just cause to end a tenancy on the California page