Legal ways to break your lease and not have to pay the remainder of it:
1. Figure out something in your place makes the place uninhabitable (but considering you’ve been there a long time, unless something recently broke and wasn’t fixed, that may not be a valid option). A list of uninhabitable things and other ways to want your landlord to get you out is at this site:
2. Find a new renter for the month of January (talk to your landlord about it, figure out what the rent will be and if it will be transfer of the current lease or if it will be a new one, then post it on Criaglist, the San Diego Reader, UT, and start showing the place). You will still probably have to pay some turnover fees, but it shouldn’t be a whole months rent (assuming you find someone that had decent credit and the landlord approves).
I am not a lawyer, I am a renter and have taken over someone else’s lease.
