“She Goes Dead Silent” — Landlord Asks Tenant to Move out Early After Renting Unit Prematurely

A frustrated tenant shared how his landlord tried to get him to move out of his apartment early after she prematurely rented his place to someone else.

This is in spite of the fact that, two weeks prior, she adamantly told him he needed to abide by the terms of their lease when he asked if he could leave the building sooner in exchange for a prorated rent charge.

John (@johntiramisu) delineated the peripatetic back-and-forth he had with his landlord in a viral TikTok video that accrued over 3 million views on the popular social media application. He asked other users on the application how he should go about handling the situation.

"I just got a call from my landlord asking me when my movers are coming next week."

However, John was confused by his landlord's request. That's because, according to him, his lease was up in another month, not seven days.

"The problem is I'm not moving out next week. I'm moving out next month cause that's when my lease ends."

John said that when he informed his landlord of this information over the phone, the nature of their discussion became immediately awkward. "I told her this and she goes dead silent, hangs up the phone."

A bit later, John received another phone call, but it wasn't from his landlord. "Two hours later, I get a call from the broker who very nicely, very apologetically asks me would it be possible to vacate your apartment early."

It appears that whoever leased John's place out made an error in when his move-out date was. That's because they had rented his place to another tenant. John said the broker requested his early move out, "cause somebody else is moving in."

The TikToker continued, "Like, apparently my landlord had like gotten the days mixed up and rented my apartment while I still have a lease."

John ended up explaining his situation to the broker. Furthermore, he tells viewers he had actually spoken about his move-out date with his landlord just a few days prior.

"So I'm like OK, like this, first of all, I don't know if I can. But also, I literally broached this topic with my landlord two weeks ago. I was like I would like to maybe move out a bit early, can we prorate the rent and do that."

According to John, she was adamantly against this idea and said that he needed to indeed pay the full amount of rent for the month and that there wasn't any way he'd have his rent prorated.

"And she was like absolutely not, that's not how leases work." So John specifically told his landlord that he would exit the apartment on the final day of his lease. "I was like fine, fine whatever. I'll just leave on the last day of my lease then, May 31, like, as agreed."

Consequently, John was baffled as to how his landlord could've made such a grave error when renting his soon-to-be-vacant unit to a new renter. "I don't know how she got this mixed up. Now she's asking me to leave. Or she's not even asking me herself. She's asking the broker to do it cause I bet she feels awkward. About this whole situation, which is, yeah."

"I don't know what to do because on one hand, I do wanna leave this place ASAP cause I just saw another cockroach, but also like, I feel like, I just, I mean, I have a lease. Like, why do I have to mess up my schedule to, you know, accommodate my landlord's f--- up?"

He added, "especially when she wasn't being accommodating to me before, you know?"

In a location tag appended to his post, John's video indicates that he's located on 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York.

New York has clearly defined leasing laws protecting both tenants and landlords, with clear stipulations when it comes to funds.

Some of the finds listed on NYC.gov's website contain facts some may find surprising. Such as ones pertaining to security deposits, which may not be placed in landlords' personal accounts. If these deposits are in business savings accounts that accrue interest, tenants are entitled to their security deposit money back, plus 1/3rd of the interest accrued on that money.

Furthermore, there are clear laws that protect tenants from eviction in Manhattan, especially if the property management company or landlord isn't offering a pro-rated monthly rental rate.

Numerous folks who responded to John's video said that this is his opportunity to request an early move-out discount on his month's rent.

One person in the comments section who said that they rent units out themselves wrote: "So landlord here — you don’t owe her anything. But you can leverage her desperation against her. Have her pay you what you feel is reasonable to move out early. If she disagrees, then she can wait!"

Another TikTok user replied that John should've tossed the same logic his landlord used against him right back at her. "No. Tell her that’s not how leases work."

Someone else, who previously was a landlord, gave John a thorough breakdown of how he should go about the situation.

"As a former landlord and former property manager … LEVERAGE! Yes, you can move out early with your deposit returned IMMEDIATELY. Get prorated rent back IMMEDIATELY, AND she must pay the rush movers to come pack up your place quickly and store your belongings into a storage AND pay for your temp housing!"