[quote=Hobie]Does your lease allow cancellation? Doubt it. Say nothing, he will move then send him a bill pro-rating the remainder of the lease. Certified of course.[/quote]
Notwithstanding the servicemember issue here (which prevents you from doing this if they qualify), I urge anyone thinking about this approach to remember that as a landlord, you have the duty to mitigate damages. This means that you have to start looking for a new tenant in a timely manner, and that you cannot simply let a place stay vacant because you aren’t happy with potential. I had a landlord try to do this to me when I broke a lease because I was being relocated for my job (not service related), then try to sue me in small claims for the pro-rated amount. I found two other people who were willing to rent my place at the same price I was paying, but the landlord rejected them because he wanted more money in rent. I won in small claims because I showed that he was not making a good faith effort to mitigate.*
In my experience (from this and dealing with my parent’s rental properties), small claims tends to be very tenant-friendly. The best thing to do is to just try and find someone asap, and see if the tenant will work with you on letting potential tenants view the property.
* I will admit that the fact that I am a lawyer probably helped me out in small claims, and that most tenants would probably not be able to defend themselves as well as I did.
