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What Rights Does an Abandoning Tenant Have?

BY Stewart E. Sterk
February 25, 2010

Both commercial and residential tenants sometimes face the personal or economic need to leave leased premises before the expiration of the lease term. In times of economic recession, the problem is more serious ' both for landlords and for tenants ' than in boom times. What rights does a tenant have in this situation?

Becar v. Flues

The common law answer was clear: The tenant remained liable to the landlord for the duration of the lease term. In New York, the principle was established in Becar v. Flues, 64 NY 518, an 1876 case in which a decedent had lease a house for a year, and died one month into the lease. The decedent's executor sought to return the key, but the landlord refused the tender. The executor established that the landlord could have relet the premises for nearly as much as the decedent had agreed to pay, but the Court of Appeals nevertheless held that the landlord was entitled to recover full rent for the balance of the lease term. The court reasoned that the lease agreement had vested in the decedent full title to the lease term, and that once the tenant received the right to the term, the tenant was obligated to pay for that right.

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