Yes. In fact, your landlord can also charge you for the entire remaining lease if he/she cannot get a suitable tenant to take over the place. When we broke our lease, we talked to our landlord ahead of time. He required US to find a new tenant. We had to advertise and show the place. He ultimately chose the new tenant, but we had to do all of the work. He also did KEEP our deposit to cover the next month while the place was empty. This occurred in Iowa. Laws may vary, but in these cases, I'm not certain. Contact legal aid or the local housing authority.

Yes, because when you signed the lease, you signed a contract legally obligating you to pay for the term of occupancy. The penalty for breaking a lease is determined by the landlord's preferences, the situation pertaining to why you broke the lease, and whether or not the landlord is a complete ass. Charging you for the remaining balance for the month that you leave is generous. I've had friends that have had to come up with the money to pay for the remaining term of the lease, up to $8,000! If you feel like you were treated unfairly, call the Equal Housing Association to determine what the guidelines are in your area, though they very rarely deviate. Good luck!

Two things you need to do...READ YOUR WRITTEN AGREEMENT and CHECK WITH A LOCAL GROUP (Landlord/Tenant Hotline or other legal dept. including but not limited to your state Government web site..sometimes they do have a page about these matters too!) as to the specific laws for that state (check the city page too). In some states a Deposit is ONLY to be applied to damages done to the property by the tenant! AND...if a portion or the whole of the deposit is kept...the landlord only has a specific amount of time in which to pony up receipts that show to what damages (repaired) the deposit funds were applied! Now, if you had a lease for a particular amount of time, with the exception of a MONTH TO MONTH agreement, the landlord (in every state I know of) MAY SUE YOU for the entire amount that you would have paid, with one small...but helpful point. IF they were able to re-rent the property...then they can only sue you for their actual loss of rent up to the time the next/new tenant took over the rental. They CAN include costs to advertise the rental along with any actual loss of rent in their suit against you and unless there were some major problems (death of the primary wage earner in your family...or sever damages that were NOT your fault that make the dwelling uninhabitable and which they were unwilling to repair...) you will loose that case and will be responsible for paying... Read your agreement! If you just kinda cut and ran, you may have gotten off lightly on the costs...but..if they were able to turn it right around and rent it quickly, you left it in spotless condition (and ideally took some photos to prove it!) and you gave as much notice as you could...you might be in a better position to try and get some portion of the deposit back... If you are interested you'll need to do some homework on this and know you acted in an optimum manner to negate THEIR loss of rent in the condition and timing.

Thanks everyone for your help...it's over...I sent him his money and I'm through with him. I didn't have a problem sending him the money, I had a problem with the un-necessarily rude letter he sent to us re: the condition we had left the property in. No permanent damage, just not cleaned to his expectations...and things that I had no control over...he had to take care of the trash that our pick-up service didn't take. I'm glad to be done with the whole situation! Thanks again...