A tenant signed a one-year residential lease with a landlord, agreeing to pay $1,200 in monthly rent. After four months, the tenant vacated the property without notice and stopped paying rent. The landlord chose not to attempt to re-lease the property and allowed it to remain vacant for the remainder of the lease term. After the lease term ended, the landlord sued the tenant to recover $9,600 in unpaid rent.
Under the modern majority rule, how much is the tenant likely obligated to pay?
The tenant is responsible for $9,600 under the lease agreement.
The tenant is not held liable for unpaid rent due to the landlord’s refusal to re-lease the property.
The tenant is required to pay $9,600 minus the security deposit amount.
The tenant is liable for unpaid rent reduced by the amount the landlord would have earned by re-leasing the property.
Under the modern majority rule, landlords are required to mitigate damages by making reasonable efforts to re-lease a property after the tenant breaches the lease early. Failing to do so limits their ability to recover the full unpaid rent from the tenant, as it is unreasonable to shift the burden entirely to the breaching party when mitigation was possible. In this case, the landlord’s decision not to seek a new tenant significantly impacts their recovery. As a result, the tenant would owe unpaid rent reduced by the amount the landlord would have reasonably earned had they attempted to re-lease the property.
The first answer fails to account for the landlord’s duty to mitigate damages, overstating the tenant’s liability. The third answer mischaracterizes the landlord's failure to mitigate as a complete negation of the tenant's liability, which does not align with legal principles. The fourth answer introduces the security deposit as a factor, but the facts do not provide evidence of a security deposit, making this argument baseless.
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