Lease Acceleration Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Tennessee law says, what's specific to Nashville - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-507 makes your landlord use reasonable efforts to re-rent an abandoned unit at fair rental.
- That duty only exists in counties over 75,000 people by the 2010 census, and Davidson County clears it easily.
- Tennessee sets no day count for abandonment, so nothing in the code says when the clock starts.
- Sign an identical lease in a small Tennessee county and the URLTA doesn't apply, gutting your mitigation defense.
- Miami landlords can legally sit on an empty unit and bill you monthly; Nashville renters get a real mitigation defense.
Understanding the Lease Acceleration Clause
A lease acceleration clause says the second you default - miss rent, move out early, break a term - every remaining month comes due at once. On a Nashville one-bedroom at $1,650 with seven months left, that's an $11,550 demand triggered by one missed payment.
It matters here because Tennessee pushes back, but only in certain counties. Davidson County is one of them, so Nashville renters get a re-rent duty that renters an hour down the road may not have at all.
What renters assume
Renters read the accelerated balance, see a five-figure number, and assume it's a real bill they either pay or run from.
What is actually true
That number is a ceiling, not a verdict. Because § 66-28-507 makes your landlord use reasonable efforts to re-rent at fair rental, the recoverable amount drops by whatever the next tenant pays.
Tennessee lands in the protective half of that chart, with an asterisk no other state on it carries. Texas and New York void any lease term waiving the mitigation duty, statewide and for everyone; Tennessee's protection is county by county, and your address decides whether you have it.
Plain English Version
It's like quitting a gym and getting handed a bill for all twelve remaining months on the spot. In Nashville, the gym has to actually try to sell your spot to someone else, and whatever they collect comes off your bill.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Nashville, TN
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.
Printed as the opinion prints it, and not to the end: the lease paragraph carries one further sentence, about late fees and interest on accelerated amounts, which is omitted here:
If any monthly installment under this agreement is not paid when due and remains unpaid after a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal rent amount owed for the full lease term shall at once become due and payable at the option of the Landlord and judgment may be had for all said amounts due. The foregoing provision shall not relieve the Landlord of its obligation to mitigate damages. In the event the rental premises is re-rented to another for full value prior to expiration of the lease term, Landlord shall file Notice of Partial Satisfaction of any judgment entered to the extent of the third party rental agreement.
[…]
Quoted from the published opinion in Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164, 357 Mont. 123, 236 P.3d 586 (No. DA 09-0489). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“after a date specified by a notice to Tenant”
The lease fixes its own date and Tennessee does not supply a competing one: § 66-28-507 does not define abandonment by any specific number of days. That is unusual among the states compared here - Arizona counts to seven days or to five, and Chicago's ordinance counts to 21 or 32 - and it means the question of when your unit became an abandoned unit is settled on facts rather than on a calendar. Keep the notice: the date on it is the only date anyone has written down.
“for all said amounts due”
How much of the total survives depends on which Tennessee county the unit sits in, a distinction most leases never make. Inside a covered county the landlord's reasonable efforts to re-rent at a fair rental are a duty, and what those efforts could have earned comes off the figure. Outside one, our Tennessee record says common-law rules apply and the tenant's mitigation defence is far weaker. Nashville sits inside, because Davidson County is over the Act's 75,000 threshold.
“In the event the rental premises”
The statute speaks about the same object this sentence does, the dwelling unit itself, and puts a requirement on what happens to it. After abandonment, § 66-28-507 requires the landlord to use reasonable efforts to re-rent it at a fair rental. Note the two halves: the effort has to be reasonable and the price has to be fair, so a unit advertised well above its market rent and then left standing is not obviously satisfying either half.
“is re-rented to another”
A replacement tenancy is the event the Tennessee duty is aimed at, and the statute's standard is a fair rental - a market measure rather than a promise to match your old rent. States word this differently and the wording decides real money. New York's Real Prop. Law § 227-e requires re-renting at fair market value or the lease rate, whichever is lower, which expressly pushes the landlord below your rent when the market has fallen. Tennessee's phrase leaves more of that to the facts.
The Montana Supreme Court struck this paragraph down, and its conclusion is one sentence: “Thus, we conclude that the accelerated rent provision is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.” The tenants had moved out of their apartment on October 13, 2006, and Crestview answered with a Statement of Deductions from the Security Deposit charging rent through the end of the lease in June - $6,505.75 billed against a $2,170 deposit. Two reasons carried the court. Acceleration undermines the landlord's duty to mitigate and reduces the incentive to re-rent promptly, because a landlord already holding a judgment for the whole term has little reason to fill the unit. And Crestview drafted the lease while these tenants had no meaningful choice and no opportunity to negotiate any of it. The case was reversed and remanded, and two justices wrote separately - their objection being that the majority had gone as far as treating acceleration clauses as unenforceable in themselves. So read the holding narrowly, as the majority wrote it: this provision, in this residential lease, unconscionable and unenforceable. It is a Montana decision and it binds no other state's courts. What travels is the reasoning, and the reasoning is about mitigation - which is exactly the question the statute in your own city's decode answers.
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.
Tennessee Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- Section 66-28-507 requires the landlord to use reasonable efforts to re-rent the dwelling unit at a fair rental after abandonment.
- The URLTA applies only in counties with populations over 75,000 according to the 2010 federal census (§ 66-28-102).
- The statute does not define abandonment by any specific number of days.
- Outside covered counties, common-law rules apply and the tenant's mitigation defense is far weaker.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-507 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-507 does one job: after you abandon the unit, your landlord has to use reasonable efforts to re-rent it at a fair rental. That means listing it, showing it, and pricing it like any other vacancy, not parking it and running the meter on you. The statute sets no day count for abandonment, so when the duty kicks in gets argued case by case.
The catch is coverage. Tennessee's URLTA only reaches counties with more than 75,000 people by the 2010 federal census under § 66-28-102, so this protection is geographic rather than universal. Compare Washington, where RCW 59.18.310 caps your liability at the lesser of remaining rent or re-rental costs everywhere in the state - Tennessee hands Nashville a strong defense and hands a small-county renter almost nothing.
Tennessee Tenant Protections
Your landlord must use reasonable efforts to re-rent the unit at a fair rental after abandonment, so an accelerated balance shrinks by what the next tenant pays. Because the URLTA covers counties over 75,000 people and Davidson County clears that line, the duty applies to your Nashville lease whether or not the lease mentions it. The accelerated figure is a ceiling rather than a judgment, since recovery is limited by what re-renting could reasonably have produced.
What's Specific to Nashville
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.
Nashville adds no local acceleration ordinance - what it adds is coverage. Davidson County clears the 75,000-person threshold in § 66-28-102, and that is the only reason the URLTA's re-rent duty reaches your lease. A renter signing an identical lease in a small Tennessee county has no statutory mitigation duty to point at.
The local supply picture then works in your favor. Nashville has absorbed one of the heaviest apartment construction waves in the country, and buildings in the Gulch, East Nashville, and Midtown routinely advertise free-month concessions to fill units. That makes "we couldn't re-rent it" a hard story for a property manager to sell, so screenshot your unit's re-listing the week you leave.
Fair leases state that your balance drops by rent collected after re-rental. § 66-28-507 already requires reasonable efforts, so writing it down costs your landlord nothing.
A clause turning a single missed month into every remaining month is the harshest version of this term. Ask for it capped or struck before you sign.
A defined buyout with a set dollar figure beats an open-ended acceleration demand, because you know your exact exposure before anything goes wrong.
Tennessee sets no day count for abandonment, so a lease that declares you gone after a couple of weeks is using the landlord's number, not the state's.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-507, read on codes.findlaw.com. Tennessee publishes its official code through LexisNexis; there is no free government edition. FindLaw marks its copy of this section current as of January 2, 2024; confirm the current text with the Tennessee General Assembly before relying on it.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
-
Whole term due on one default
One missed payment converting into every remaining month is the most aggressive form of this clause. Tennessee's § 66-28-507 duty still applies, but you'll be the one arguing it.
-
No re-rental credit language
A lease silent on crediting the new tenant's rent doesn't erase the statute. It does signal a manager who plans to bill the full balance and dare you to fight.
-
Abandonment defined by short absence
Tennessee's code attaches no number of days to abandonment. A lease calling a two-week trip abandonment is writing its own trigger for accelerating your rent.
-
Termination fee plus acceleration rights
Some leases charge an early-termination fee and reserve the right to accelerate. Ask in writing which one actually applies before you sign anything.
-
Landlord's attorney fees on you
A term making you cover the landlord's legal costs turns a disputed balance into an expensive fight. Nashville has no ordinance voiding it the way Chicago's RLTO does.
Your Rights as a Nashville Tenant
-
Landlord must try to re-rent
§ 66-28-507 requires reasonable efforts to re-rent your unit at a fair rental after abandonment. Sitting on an empty apartment and billing you monthly isn't the Tennessee option.
-
Davidson County is covered
The URLTA reaches counties over 75,000 people by the 2010 census under § 66-28-102. Nashville clears that easily, so the re-rent duty applies to your lease.
-
Fair rental, not a fire sale
The statute says fair rental. A landlord who re-rents far below market and bills you the shortfall isn't doing what § 66-28-507 asks of them.
-
The clause names a ceiling
Acceleration sets the maximum, not the judgment. What's recoverable shrinks by the rent re-renting could reasonably have produced, so demand the itemized math behind any number.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the acceleration language
Search your lease for "accelerate," "entire balance," or "all remaining rent," and copy the exact wording out. Everything after this depends on what it actually says.
Confirm your county is covered
The URLTA applies in Tennessee counties over 75,000 people, and Davidson clears it. If your unit sits in a smaller Middle Tennessee county, your mitigation defense is far weaker.
Demand an itemized statement
Ask in writing for the months claimed, the re-rental efforts made, and any rent collected from a new tenant. Never accept a lump-sum demand.
Document the re-listing
Screenshot the listing sites and the building's own page the week after you move out. Proof the unit re-rented fast is your mitigation defense.
Send a mitigation letter
Cite Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-507, state that reasonable efforts to re-rent are required, and ask what steps were taken. Keep it short, dated, and factual.
Get a tenant attorney involved
A demand for most of a year's rent justifies one hour of legal time. Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee handles Nashville lease disputes regularly.