I broke my lease which would've otherwise continued until the end of May 2007. However, I placed several ads at my own expense and found a new tenant who signed a new lease with the landlord at the same price of $1000/month. The house only stood vacant for 10 days (February 1-10).

My lease reads: "If tenant breaches the lease, the deposit will be forfeited as special liquidated damages to cover the costs of reletting the rental premises." However, over the phone, the Coldwell Banker property manager told me that they not only have a right to the deposit but I will have to pay "the usual 2 month's liquidated damages for breaking a lease."

Today I received his notice that he will be taking my $1000 security deposit, and I owe him an additional $2000 in "unpaid rent" (I can only imagine this is the '2 months liquidated damages he referred to.)

Question #1: The lease says nothing about '2 months liquidated damages.' I've read it a billion times and it only says I lose my deposit. Is this legal?

Question #2: Is it legal for them to take my ENTIRE security deposit, even though the house stood vacant for only 36% of February? (ie, the only damages they have suffered were $360 in unpaid rent from Feb 1 - Feb 10 --- I found the new renter so there was no cost to them and the house was left in perfect 'ready-to-rent' condition (they have noted such in their letter).