What is the name of your state? Nevada
First,thanks so much to all responses for my recent post.
But I need to find out what constitutes a "reasonable effort" in regard to a property mgmt co. claiming they are trying to re-rent the home I recently vacated (I broke the lease and moved out 2 months ago but am still paying the monthly rent until they can re-rent it.) The property mgmt had been posting my lisiting on craigslist every week until Dec. 18th--they have not posted it since. And the post of my listing they put on rentals.com contains numerous errors(such as the wrong amount of monthly rent) so it just seems like they aren't making much effort here...maybe because I'm stuck making the monthly payments until April as per my lease so they're not in any hurry? Is there anything at all I can do about this?
Also, how can the property mgmt say they will charge me $700 for showing/listing/advertising when the websites they are using are all free to post listings? The property mgmt gave me 4 different websites they say they are using to advertise the property. One is Craigslist(free), one is the property mgmt's own website (again presumably free) one is [url]www.ahrn.com(a[/url] military housing referral site which states that it is a free service) and one is rentals .com(which I called and found out it is free for property mgmt to post lisitngs on). The property mgmt says it costs the actual owner a minimum of $50/month for advertising...I don't understand this--advertising on free sites? The property mgmt also says there is a $250 leasing fee paid by the owner(what is this for?) and also a showing fee paid by the owner which goes to the agent who shows the property(is this a commission?) Any help here is very greatly appreciated because I stronglt feel that the property mgmt is trying to intimidate me...thanks again.

Your thought process is faulty...the co web site is not FREE - it cost annually or monthly to host and maintain PLUS someone has to maintain and input into the website. CL is FREE; however, again, it cost manpower to repost ads on the website. The military website is for military only and they do not advertise it EVEN within the military...so yes, it is FREE, but virtually worthless. Did you authorize them to place print media/newspaper ads - these are costly and would be at your expense and they can be effective.

You broke the lease and probably had the option of attempting to provide them with your own replacement residents or you could have remained through your lease...
Yes, life sucks - however, you broke the lease!!

Cvillecpm is correct. While these websites don't charge the poster to pace the ads, it does require someone in an office to word the ads, type them in, to take and download the photos, to answer the responses from the ads, return their calls and answer any questions, to follow up on these by e-mailing more photos to interested parties, to schedule showings, take applications, screen them, etc. While CL is a "free service", you must reword the ad there each week and change the photos (or at least rename and resend the photos) to keep the posting toward the top of the list. Otherwise, it falls to the bottom quite quickly and no one will see it. (Been there, done that!) Most places stop advertising for the weeks of Christmas and New Years. No one wants to move during those holiday weeks. Those that do are usually undesirable (being evicted). Postings usually restart after the 1st of the year again.

I also looked at rentals.com. According to their ad, rates run a minimum of $39 per month for single units (like that house) and $99 per month for multi-unit buildings (plus another $40 if you want the ad to be pulled up by Google and other search engines). I saw no free ads for PMs. (Where did you see that?) So a minimum of $50 per month seems correct.

The leasing fee is paid by the owner to the PM as part of his contract for securing the new tenant. This pays the leasing agent (the PM) for his time to draw up the paperwork and sign the lease. It also may pay him to review the applications and screen them. Some PMs get a full month's rent when they sign a new lease. A $250 fee is very reasonable. The showing fee reimburses and pays the showing agent for their time and travel to the unit to show it to multiple interested parties. An agent may show a unit many times before a suitable, qualified tenant is interested and signs a lease. This is also standard. If the unit is a single family house, and is not part of a complex, the fees are usually higher since renting the unit requires travel to and from the unit multiple times. (A unit in a complex is much easier to show at various times of the day or evening.)

Please keep all your questions on the same topic in the same thread.

One more thing. You said they posted the wrong rent. If someone breaks their lease, we use whatever the current rent is, whether that rent is cheaper or more expensive depends on the market.

Rentals.com charges a property about $375 per lease agreement. I would suggest you doing some of your own advertising to draw more people to the apartment!

Good luck.

I would think you should pay nothing for their expenses posting on websites, even if those websites charge them money.

By breaking the lease you did not cause them to incur a cost they otherwise wouldn't have. You caused them to incur a cost earlier than they would have. Attributing a cost for their employees is similarly suspect. They did not have to pay those employees extra because you broke the lease and even if they did (overtime, etc.), those expenses are likely just incurred earlier than they would have been.

What is their damages in that case? Interest on the expenditures that would've otherwise been incurred later?

If you're in a state that requires mitigation of damages, pay them their monthly fee if they've made reasonable efforts to find a new tenant. Tell them you're not going to pay if they don't provide you with evidence that they're making reasonable efforts. I wouldn't pay for the listing fees, etc. You did not cause them to incur those.

Mr. Nice is incorrect.

The point is that the property OWNER has already paid the PM to locate YOU as a tenant for 12 months...NOW, you want the PM to do the same work AGAIN so the owner should not have to pay these costs AGAIN - and YOU should pay them since they will ONLY benefit YOU in the breaking of your lease.

OHlandlord - check [url]www.postlets.com[/url] for format/posting your CL ads...They are FREE, look very professional, you can post more pics and you just copy and past the HTML code in the CL ad description. I too get up early to post ad as early as possible and change them daily with link to my website in the ad description.

His lease would be finished within the year and the owner would have to pay those expenses to find a new tenant. So the owner would have to do that same work AGAIN (see I can type in ALL CAPS too.) At most he accelerated those expenses by some extent. Maybe some portion of the cost is fair. Anything else is unjust enrichment. The landlord should not come out further ahead than if the tenant had stayed the full twelve months, which seems possible in this case. Full reimbursement is overreaching.

Who says the lease will be finished in 2 months? OP indicates he MOVED OUT 2 months ago....I can READ and type in CAPS.

Mr. Nice this is a legal advice website and you apparently know nothing about LL/tenant law. Do not give the OP inaccurate advice. If you don't know what you are talking about, keep your fingers still! (That's the equivalent of "keep your mouth shut!")

Cvillecpm, thanks for the web site. Anything that makes it easier to advertise and list units makes me smile! Especially if it's cheap (or free!)

Mr. Nice. The OP doesn't say how long he has left in the lease, only that he left over 2 months ago (and still apparently has time left on that lease!) If he had a long lease (1-2 yrs) and has considerable time left, the LL may end up with a replacement for only the remainder of his lease period. The costs to advertise now may have to be repeated at the end of his lease (when the LL would have normally expected them to have been incurred). So the advertising costs now would be in addition to those he later expects. These costs would be additional costs he would not have incurred had the OP honored his agreement. He owes these cost.

To the OP, to keep these costs as low as possible, I suggest you atempt to find a new tenant for your own unit. Check with the LL, but I doubt he would object. Network with friends and let them know the unit is available. Place an ad in an employee newsletter or bulletin board. Post fliers about the unit at landromats, stores, and banks. The sooner another tenant gets in that unit, the fewer costs you owe.