Also known as: landlord duty to mitigate damages · landlords duty to mitigate damages · landlord mitigation of damages · mitigation of damages · landlord mitigation duty
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A rule in landlord-tenant law that requires a landlord, upon a tenant's abandonment of leased premises, to make reasonable efforts to relet the property so as to reduce the tenant's liability for unpaid future rent.
Lena Lawson leased commercial space to Luis Lopez for a five-year term at a fixed monthly rent. Lopez abandoned the premises after two years without surrendering the lease. Lawson relet the space on commercially reasonable terms to a new tenant at a slightly lower rent and sued Lopez for the difference. The court credited the new rent against Lopez's obligation, limiting his liability to the shortfall rather than the full original amount.
Lars Lindstrom leased an office to Lamar Lewis for three years. Lewis vacated early and stopped paying rent. Lindstrom notified Lewis that he would relet for Lewis's account rather than accept surrender. He found a replacement tenant on reasonable terms and recovered only the difference in rent from Lewis. The court held that the reletting mitigated damages without terminating the original lease.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
No. In many jurisdictions a landlord may choose to keep the lease alive and sue for rent as it comes due without any duty to relet. The duty arises only when the landlord elects to relet for the tenant's account or when state law imposes it by statute or case decision.
Acceptance of surrender terminates the lease and ends the tenant's future rent liability. The landlord may recover only accrued rent and damages caused by the abandonment, but cannot collect rent for the unexpired term.
When a landlord relets for the tenant's account on reasonable terms, the tenant remains liable for the difference between the original rent and the rent actually obtained from the new tenant, plus any accrued unpaid rent.
…have been modernly applied to the construction of leases.” 56 N.J. at 141. Application of the contract rule requiring mitigation of damages to a residential lease may be justified as a matter of basic fairness.[^maj-4] Professor McCormick first commented upon the inequity under the majority rule when he predicted in 1925 that…