Landlord problem - breaking the lease

[rasearcy.livejournal.com]

I've looked through some of the past posts regarding landlord / tenant issues, and couldn't quite find the information I was looking for.  I will be leaving Somerville to move to NYC in February for a new job, and I need to break my apartment lease.  My landlord has agreed to terminate my tenancy under the following terms: 1) a light cleaning, and 2) a termination fee equal to 4 months rent.  That seems insane to me, and I've been looking around for information online, but everything seems so ambiguous and I haven't been able to find anything definitive.  My landlord has also explicitly forbidden subletting.  I guess my questions are whether I actually do have to pay this, and if not, how do I respond to this?

I received some advice that suggested that if I'm able to find someone creditworthy interested in assuming the remainder of the lease (I guess that's somehow semantically different from a sublet, although I don't quite know why) then that releases me from the lease, regardless of whether or not the landlord accepts this person.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this?  I've talked with a bunch of people who have broken their lease and most of them just had to forfeit their security deposit.  Four months rent is a lot of money and I'm kind of freaking out.  I don't know how to get my landlord to reduce that amount and I don't want this to turn into a messy, ugly situation.  Any help would be very much appreciated.  Thanks!

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

um... well, given that i signed a year-long lease in October, i think it's only fair that I try to find a tenant to take my place when I move in January.

good != willing to let me do whatever I want

[squirrelitude]

talonvaki was confusing you with the OP.