What happens if a tenant breaks a lease in California?
In California, when a tenant breaches the lease and abandons the property, the lease ends and the landlord may recover the rent that comes due afterward only to the extent it exceeds the rental loss the tenant proves could reasonably have been avoided. Rent already earned when the lease ends is recoverable in full. To recover for the part of the term after the court’s award, the lease must provide for it, or the landlord must have re-rented the property before the award and prove it acted reasonably and in a good-faith effort to mitigate the damages. A landlord may instead keep the lease in effect and recover the rent as it comes due only if the lease provides for that remedy and lets the tenant sublet or assign, subject only to reasonable limits. Separately, federal law lets a servicemember end a lease early after receiving qualifying military orders. This is Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1951.2, 1951.4.
| What | California |
|---|---|
| Landlord’s duty to re-rent | Recovery limited to unavoidable rent loss |
| What it means | The statute limits what the landlord can recover |
Source
Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1951.2, 1951.4
Read the statute in the California Codes (California Legislative Information): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
Checked against the statute on November 13, 2026.
This is a summary of a published statute, not legal advice. Rules change, local ordinances can add to them, and the terms of a specific lease may differ. Check the citation and speak to a lawyer before acting.
How Seayora uses this rule
Seayora keeps every lease’s term, rent and signers in one record and dates every change to it. This page states the state’s rule so a lease’s own early-termination and sublet clauses can be checked against it before the lease is signed.
Guides on this rule
- Breaking a Lease by State: What the Tenant Owes — What a tenant owes after leaving a lease early, and the 34 states whose statutes say whether the landlord must try to re-rent the home.
Compare this rule in every state
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