We had an 18 month lease which would end June 2008. The landlord recently wrote to us and told us he is giving us the 60 days notice and we emailed back telling him ok, we will be out no later than the end of February. We were lucky and found a place right away and we can move out of the house before the 20th of January. We let him know our plans and he told us that we are still responsible for the rent until the end of the 60 days or we have to stay there until hte 60 days are up. I looked at our lease agreement and the only thing is says is that he has a right to terminate the lease with the 60 day notice according to the VA residental landlord tenant act. I read that act up and down and I don't see anywhere in there that once he gives us notice we are required to stay the entire 60 days or that we are responsible for the rent for the 2 months whether we are living there or not. I understand if we were the ones that terminated the lease early then sure, we would be responsible for that, but since he gave us the notice how come we still have to pay??

Can someone please let me know where I can find information where he is correct or not correct? I couldn't find it in the tenant act anywhere that we are responsible when he is the one that terminates the lease early.

Help urgently would be great. We are supposed to sign our the new lease Sat afternoon (01/05/08) and we want to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Thanks for your help,
VJ

Why did the landlord decide to end the lease early?

he had an ARM on his house and it spiked up so he wants to sell the house right away to try and get ride of that high mortgage payment.

Did you notify him in writing (as he did breach the contract) that you would be moving no later than 30 days?

http://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/HomelessnesstoHomeownership/PDFs/Landlord_Tenant_Handbook.pdf

(VRLTA 55-248.21)

we emailed him back and told him we would make sure we are there "no later than the end of Feb" (the 60 days) and wrote back with "thanks for understanding" so he knew we planned on leaving before the 60 days. But I don't think he thought we would find a place so soon and now wants us to still pay for Feb even though we aren't going to be there.

Leases usually survive a property sale, being binding on the new owner.