cannot pay rent

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Question

Country: United States of America
State: Missouri

We live in Missouri. Our lease in our apartment is not up until this coming June. We no longer can afford to live here so we called our landlord and asked her if we can get out of our lease. She said that if we paid her 2 months worth of rent and she keeps the deposit she would lets us. Well, we can't afford to pay the regular rent, so there is no way we can pay 2 months worth to get out. My husband says we should just abandon it and send her the keys. What can she do if we decide to do that?

Answer

Review your lease and see if it has any terms that may support you and in any case ask the landlord to work something out--many will do something for you in medical situations or other emergencies...if there are any problems you could try to point those out as reasons for leaving as well; finally most landlords actually will not sue for the amounts owing after a broken lease, though they may try to report it to your credit agency; you are only liable until they re-rent it in any case so if you can find someone to take it, that may also help...