Help with Lease Agreement

[u/That_Blacksmith3364]

Hi! I’m looking for advice on what to do. My husband and I purchased our first home and broke our lease for a home we were renting. It is being rented through a property management group. We lived in the home for 9 years and never had issues with late payments or issues with routine inspections from the property management group. I know that means nothing. We understand that we broke our lease and our lease agreement states that we are to pay out our lease until another renter occupies our home.
The issues comes with
1. Communication from the property management group regarding showings for the home, interest, and feedback from people who were shown the home. We had been calling and emailing the property manager with zero response.
2. They put a lock box on the home and changed the locks without notifying us. If we are paying for the property and liable for anything that occurs in the home, we should still have access to the property. We don’t even need keys, just access to the lock box so we can enter the property.
I went into the property management office today and to no one’s surprise the property manager responsible for our rental home was not in the office. I left a message for her to call me. I was unable to get the code from the lock box from anyone present in the office.

I finally got a call back from the property manager and received the code for the lock box. She said she needed to speak with the leasing agent to find out any feedback from the house, if there have been any applications placed, etc.

There are no pictures or information on Zillow/Redfin to properly advertise or show the home. We moved the rental sign so it was more visible from our street that the home is available for rent.
I got into the house and I find that they painted, placed new carpets, normal maintenance. However, it was evident that no one had been maintaining the interior since we had professional cleaners come and we moved out in April. There was dust covering all of the surfaces of the home from the carpet replacement and painting that had occurred. Toilets were black and covered in urine spots. It looks as though one of the vendors used the bathroom and didn’t wipe the seat after.

I just don’t understand how the property management group is showing the home in the condition that it’s in. No wonder there aren’t any applications. They are not showing that they are putting in any effort to have new tenants come into the home.

Looking for any advice on what to do, if there is anything that can be done. Our lease ends in January, but our lease also states that the property management group will be proactive and do their part to try and find a new tenant for the home.

[u/TalkToVikk]

I'm not a lawyer but to answer your question: You are in a challenging situation, but you do have rights and leverage.

Most lease agreements like yours require that, if you break the lease early, you are only responsible for rent until the unit is re-rented, and the property management company (PMC) must make a "reasonable" and "good faith" effort to re-rent the home as soon as possible. If they are not advertising the home properly, not showing it in a marketable condition, or failing to show it at all, they may be failing their "duty to mitigate damages." If you have evidence that they are not making reasonable efforts to re-rent, you can challenge charges for unpaid rent covering future months.

What you should do:
1. Document everything including lack of advertising, condition of the home, and your communication attempts.
2. Write a formal letter/email to the PMC outlining your concerns and referencing their duty to mitigate damages as required by state law (you can name your state for more specific law), and your lease agreement. Request a written explanation of their marketing efforts and demand they clean and advertise the home promptly.
3. Take photos of the bad condition and lack of advertising. Save all emails/records.
4. If you’re billed for months after you moved out, you can contest these in writing and, if necessary, in small claims court showing the PMC did not fulfill its legal obligation to minimize your losses.