Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Kansas

Hello, I have a Residential (year long) Lease, on our house in LV, KS with 2 tenants. There is still 4 mo. left on that lease & one of the tenants just texted me that he is moving out & the other tenant (his brother) already moved out. We have an Abandonment clause in the lease that states, if they abandon the premises before the end of the lease they are in default of the lease agreement & that we can seek judgment against them for rent for the remainder of the lease. Can they just leave before the lease is up? Can we go after them in court? the laws on this in KS are confusing. What can we do? I'm out of state, that's why we put our house for rent. My husband had to move for his job & we couldn't sell the house before we moved. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!


Asked on 4/17/13, 9:54 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Anthony Smith LawSmith

Without reading your lease, it is impossible to predict its strength in court. Generally, one can contract to pay rent for so many months for the ability to live in a certain location. A landlord cannot force atenant to live there. But, moving out does not usually relieve a tenant from their obligation for the rest of the rent payments.

If your posting was referring to a clause in your agreement, (wherein you say you can make all the future rental payments due now because the tenant moved out), Courts take a dim view of such clauses. If they fail to pay rent, or sent you the keys with a letter saying they are vacating and relinquishing the premises, you should evict or sue as soon as possible. Unless they can prove that the residence is now inhabitable, or some reason why they shouldn't owe the rent, you might get judgment for the past due and remainder rent on the lease agreement. Without seeing your lease agreement and any other relevant documents, no attorney can tell you what your legal stance is, nor what options you might have.

Good luck

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Answered on 4/17/13, 10:15 am


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