When You Can't Pay The Rent Getting out of a lease as an alternative to eviction Affordable rents can quickly become unaffordable when you lose your job or when, for some other reason, your financial situation worsens. Moving to a less costly apartment or house may be your best option, at least until your situation improves. This is usually better than being evicted and then being forced to find another residence under severe time pressure. If you break a lease, you may owe your landlord rent not just for those months you are in the apartment, but for some number of months after you leave. Nevertheless, switching apartments on your own time schedule, even with this penalty, may still be a better choice than waiting to be evicted.
Eviction can be a devastating and disruptive experience.
Eviction makes the financial hardships you already have even worse because it puts extra costs and pressures on you. The speed of the eviction process may force you into unwanted choices, extra expenses and acceptance of far from satisfactory alternative living arrangements. Frequently, the only other housing available is more expensive than that from which your family was evicted. You can avoid most of these problems by moving out on your own. This is almost always better than an eviction.