QUESTION
Question regarding insufficient notice of rental agreement?
Asked on Aug 22nd, 2012 on Landlord and Tenant Law - Nevada
More details to this question:
I gave insufficient notice in terminating my apartment rental agreement in Las Vegas, NV. The required notice was 60 days prior to temination and I only gave 17 days notice. The representative at the apartment complex told me that this amount of time would be adequate, but failed to mention the insufficient notice fee. I have reread my renters agreement and understand now that i did not give sufficient notice. I am now being sent to collections for the "insufficent notice fee". That amount is equal to two months rent. My question is if that fee is for two months rent and the apartment was rented by another tenant prior to the end of the two month period, should that insufficient notice fee be prorated? I read somewhere that an apartment can not be rented twice at the same time, which would be the case if the insufficent notice fee was considered rent for the 60 day period of not giving the proper notice. Also, if the fee is prorated, where can i find that information? Thanks
1 ANSWER
R. Christopher Reade
A Landlord cannot collect damages from you for lost rents during a period that the Landlord is likewise collecting rent from another Tenant (or double recovering). In any breach situation, Landlords are entitled to recover lost rents for the period of time for which the premises is otherwise unrented (plus any reduced rents which are received in mitigation of the damages). However Landlords have a duty to mitigate their damages.
With that being said, and with the caveat of not reading your Lease, there is a strong possibility that the "Inadequate Notice Fee" is characterized in your Lease as liquidated damages. Liquidated damages are a set sum which a party to a contract agrees to pay if he/she breaks some promise and which, having been arrived at by a good faith effort to estimate the actual damages that will probably ensue from breach, is recoverable as agreed-upon damages if breach occurs. In other words, rather than waiting for a breach to figure out what the actual damages are, the parties agree ahead of time to set a flat amount of damages. A liquidated damages clause is assumed to be valid unless the challenging party proves its application amounts to an unenforceable penalty, meaning that the liquidated damages are disproportionate to the actual damages sustained by the injured party.
Answered on Aug 23rd, 2012 at 12:25 PM