Early Termination Clause
in Your Lease
How this page is sourced
Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
Primary sourcesNot legal advice
Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Pennsylvania law says, what's specific to Philadelphia - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Philadelphia Code § 9-804(6) lets domestic violence and sexual assault survivors end a lease on 30 days' written notice.
- Ask in writing within 90 days of a reported incident, PFA order or consent agreement, with documentation.
- A qualifying city exit carries no early-termination penalty, and your security deposit comes back.
- 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1 gives servicemembers on qualifying orders a written-notice exit effective at least 30 days after receipt.
- The 15-day and 30-day periods in 68 P.S. § 250.501 are a landlord's notice to quit, not your exit.
Count it for your dates
30 days: when does it end?
What it means: This is the earliest date your termination can take effect, and final rent is prorated to the termination date (§ 7315.1(c)). Applies to a member of the armed forces or the Pennsylvania National Guard on full-time duty, or a civil service technician with a guard unit, with permanent change of station orders, temporary duty orders longer than three months, honorable discharge or release, or orders to mandatory government quarters that forfeit the basic allowance for housing; a copy of the orders or a commanding officer's signed letter must reach the landlord before the termination date (51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1(b)). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: Within 90 days of the reported incident, PFA order or consent agreement
Written survivor request
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
How Pennsylvania compares
Wait before a statutory exit, state by state
0 days7 days14 days30 daysNo figureGuide coming soonYou are here
See all 27 cities as a chart
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Understanding the Early Termination Clause
This page is for Philadelphia renters who want to leave a lease before its end date, or who are checking the early termination clause before they sign. The exits we found are tied to situations, not to a wish to move.
Philadelphia's code gives survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault their own route, and Pennsylvania's Military Affairs title gives one to servicemembers. Where neither fits, the clause you signed and any written deal with your landlord decide what leaving costs.
What renters assume
The chart shows Philadelphia at 30 days, so a month's notice ends any Pennsylvania lease early.
What is actually true
That figure is the military exit in 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1, open only on qualifying orders. The 15-day and 30-day periods in 68 P.S. § 250.501 are a landlord's notice to quit, not your way out.
Pennsylvania's bar on that chart is a military one. 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1 lets a servicemember end a residential lease on 30 days' written notice, and that is the figure the chart draws.
For survivors of domestic violence there is still no statewide Pennsylvania statute. Most states on this chart do hand survivors their own exit - no waiting period in Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah, 30 days in Texas and New York - while Pennsylvania's statewide version, House Bill 72, passed the House in April 2026 and was still parked in a Senate committee as of May 2026. Philadelphia stopped waiting and wrote its own.
Early Termination Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Philadelphia, PA
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
If the effective date of such termination shall be prior to the twenty-fifth (25th) consecutive month during which Resident shall have been a party to a lease within the Apartment Community in which the Leased Premises are located, then Resident shall pay to Apartment Company, with the notice hereinabove required, and in addition to the payment of rent and all other amounts, if any, due hereunder as hereinabove set forth, an amount equal to two (2) month’s rent due hereunder.…
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to limit the right of Apartment Company to recover actual damages in excess of the security deposit.
Quoted from the published opinion in Paragon Group, Inc. v. Ampleman, 878 S.W.2d 878 (Mo. Ct. App. E.D. 1994). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“the twenty-fifth (25th) consecutive month”
With no statutory exit behind you, a tenure cliff like this is the only structure in play - everything turns on the lease. Find the equivalent line in your own and note the exact month, because in Pennsylvania nothing else will soften it.
“Resident shall pay to Apartment Company, with the notice hereinabove required”
One thing gets misquoted constantly here. The 15-day and 30-day notice periods in 68 P.S. § 250.501 govern a landlord's notice to quit - they are not a tenant's right to leave early, and they will not help you exit.
“two (2) month’s rent due hereunder”
Absent any statute, this is pure liquidated damages and Pennsylvania applies the ordinary rule: a reasonable estimate of loss is enforceable, a penalty is not. A tenant who leaves is otherwise liable for the rent for the remaining term, so a capped buy-out can genuinely be the better deal.
See the example
“the right of Apartment Company to recover actual damages”
This is what turns a capped buy-out back into an open one. Read it together with the figure above: if the landlord keeps the right to prove more, the two months is a down payment rather than a settlement, and the clause is not the protection it looks like.
Enforced as valid liquidated damages. The tenant left with nine months to run on a $5,520 lease and refused to pay the two-month fee. The court held $920 was “not an unreasonable estimate” of the landlord's loss, and that although the rent owed was easy to measure, the wider harm was not. Note what the clause reserves at the end - the fee did not cap the landlord's claim.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Pennsylvania Law on Early Termination Clause
- 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1(a) covers a member of the armed forces or of the Pennsylvania National Guard on full-time duty, and a civil service technician with a guard unit.
- It is triggered by permanent change of station orders, temporary duty orders longer than three months, honorable discharge or release, or orders to mandatory government quarters that forfeit the basic allowance for housing.
- Subsection (b): serve the landlord written notice of termination effective not less than 30 days after receipt, and furnish a copy of the orders or a commanding officer's signed letter before the termination date.
- Subsection (c) prorates the final rent to the termination date, and subsection (e) requires prepaid rent for any later period to be refunded within 30 days.
- Subsection (h)(1) makes it a summary offence to hold a servicemember's property or security deposit to claim rent accruing after the termination date.
- This sits in the Military Affairs title, not the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951, which is why a search of Title 68 alone does not find it.
Sources include 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Our record of Pennsylvania's Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 finds no general right for a tenant to end a fixed-term lease early. The state route sits in the Military Affairs title instead, in 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1:
- Who. A member of the armed forces or the Pennsylvania National Guard on full-time duty, or a civil service technician with a guard unit.
- Triggers. Permanent change of station orders, temporary duty orders longer than three months, honorable discharge or release, or orders to mandatory government quarters that forfeit the basic allowance for housing.
- Notice. Written notice of termination effective at least 30 days after the landlord receives it (§ 7315.1(b)).
Check the current text of § 7315.1 before you rely on it. Separately, Pennsylvania's implied warranty of habitability, recognized in Pugh v. Holmes, means a landlord who will not keep the unit livable cannot treat the rest of your term as guaranteed rent.
If you are in the military. Federal law, 50 U.S.C. § 3955, also lets an active-duty servicemember end a residential lease after entering service, or after orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of 90 days or more.
Your landlord does not need to agree, and no early-termination fee can be charged. Pennsylvania's list above adds honorable discharge or release, which the federal section does not.
Under the federal section, the lease ends 30 days after the first rent payment due after your notice. See the worked example, and if you have no orders, this covers what is left.
What's Specific to Philadelphia
Philadelphia goes further than state law for survivors. Under Philadelphia Code § 9-804(6), a domestic violence or sexual assault survivor who asks in writing within 90 days of a reported incident, a PFA order or a consent agreement, and backs the request with documentation, can end the lease on 30 days' written notice. There is no early-termination penalty, and the security deposit is returned.
A named fee and notice period tell you the exact cost of leaving before you decide.
The city and state routes both run on written notice, so a named address tells you where to send it.
A termination fee stacked on all the rent left in the term makes you pay twice. Push for one or the other.
A fair lease says nothing about waiving the city's survivor exit. Treat that line as a warning about the whole document.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1, read on codes.findlaw.com. Pennsylvania publishes the official text at www.palegis.us. Read on codes.findlaw.com, which prints 'Current as of January 01, 2026' for this section. Pennsylvania's own hosts (palegis.us, legis.state.pa.us) refuse connections from this network, so no state-host read was possible.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Whole balance due on exit
Our record of Pennsylvania law finds no statutory cap on what a lease can demand. Ask for any claim in writing, itemized, before you pay anything.
-
A military clause narrower than the law
A lease that lists only permanent change of station orders leaves out triggers § 7315.1 names, such as honorable discharge or temporary duty longer than three months.
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Deposit held for later rent
§ 7315.1(h)(1) makes it a summary offence to hold a servicemember's property or security deposit to claim rent accruing after the termination date.
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One narrow notice channel only
A lease accepting notice only by certified mail on the first of the month can eat into the 90-day window the city gives survivors. Send it every way available.
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A military end date counted from mailing
§ 7315.1(b) counts the 30 days from the landlord's receipt of your notice. A clause counting from the day you send it, or another day, runs a different clock.
Your Rights as a Philadelphia Tenant
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Rent stops at the end date
Under § 7315.1(c), final rent after a military exit is prorated to the termination date.
-
Prepaid rent comes back
§ 7315.1(e) requires prepaid rent for any period after the termination date to be refunded within 30 days.
-
Orders or a letter as proof
Give the landlord a copy of your orders or a commanding officer's signed letter before the termination date (§ 7315.1(b)).
-
No break fee for survivors
A qualifying exit under Philadelphia Code § 9-804(6) carries no early-termination penalty, so the landlord cannot keep your deposit as one.
What To Do - Step by Step
Check whether a set route fits
Survivor of domestic violence or sexual assault: Philadelphia Code § 9-804(6). Servicemember on qualifying orders: 51 Pa.C.S. § 7315.1. If neither fits, your lease answers it.
Reread your termination clause
Find the buyout amount, the notice period and any fee. Whatever it promises binds your landlord too.
Gather your documentation
A PFA order, consent agreement or incident report for the city route. A copy of your orders or a commanding officer's signed letter for the military route.
Send written notice and keep proof
Email and a dated letter, both. A survivor's request must go in writing within 90 days, so a hallway talk protects nothing.
Negotiate a written release
If no route fits, ask for a signed mutual termination naming the exact amount owed and confirming nothing more is due after you hand over keys.
Get help before it escalates
Philadelphia legal aid and the city's tenant help line handle these questions. A demand for the rest of the year's rent is worth an attorney's look.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Early Termination rules near Pennsylvania
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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