We Gotta Get Out This Place: When Residential Tenants Leave Due To Exigent Circumstances

There are many compelling circumstances where tenants must leave their residential dwellings quickly. For my presentation at the Ben J. Al-theimer Symposium on the fortieth anniversary of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (“URLTA”), I concentrated on two categories of Residential tenants who may need to terminate their leases early because of exigent circumstances. First, I focused on domestic violence victims who need to flee their abusers. Second, I examined the need for active duty service members to terminate their leases early when called to deploy or given orders for a permanent change of duty station. While in many respects these two categories of tenants present very different challenges, ensuring early lease terminations for both—without continuing obligations or penalties—serves critical societal goals that transcend the immediate parties involved.