Lease Acceleration 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 Washington law says, what's specific to Seattle - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Your landlord must make a reasonable effort to re-rent once they learn the unit was abandoned.
- Fixed term: you owe the lesser of all remaining rent or accrued rent plus shortfall and actual re-renting costs.
- Month-to-month: rent for 30 days after discovery or until the next due date, whichever comes first.
- An acceleration clause cannot lawfully collect more than RCW 59.18.310 allows.
- No Seattle section we read adds a rule on acceleration, and the state statute controls.
Step by step
How it plays out
- You leave earlyClause demands all remaining rentAn acceleration clause bills every remaining month at once, but it cannot lawfully collect more than RCW 59.18.310 allows.
- Landlord learnsDuty to re-rent beginsOnce the landlord learns the unit has been abandoned, they must make a reasonable effort to mitigate damages.
- Bill is figuredYou owe the lesser amountMonth-to-month: rent for the 30 days following discovery or the next rent due date, whichever comes first. Fixed term: the lesser of remaining rent or accrued rent plus shortfall and re-renting costs.
Count it for your dates
30 days: when does it end?
What it means: Your month-to-month rent liability covers the 30 days ending on this date, counted from whichever came first: the landlord's discovery of the abandonment or the next rent due date. Applies to month-to-month tenancies only, which owe rent for the 30 days following the landlord's discovery of abandonment or the next rent due date, whichever comes first; on a fixed term you owe the lesser of all remaining rent or accrued rent plus the fair-rental shortfall and actual re-renting costs (RCW 59.18.310). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: When your landlord bills you for remaining rent after you moved out early
Ask for an itemized statement
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
How Washington compares
Landlord duty to mitigate after an early lease break, state by state
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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 Lease Acceleration Clause
This page is for Seattle renters whose lease has an acceleration clause: the paragraph that makes every remaining month of rent due at once if you break the lease. On paper the bill is simple, months left times the rent.
In Washington the real figure depends on when your landlord learned you had left, whether you were month-to-month or on a fixed term, and what it cost to re-rent the unit.
What renters assume
If my lease says all remaining rent is due when I leave, I owe the whole balance the day I move out.
What is actually true
Not in Washington. RCW 59.18.310 requires your landlord to try to re-rent, and it caps a fixed-term bill at the lesser of the remaining rent or the actual shortfall plus re-renting costs.
Washington sits at the protective end of this chart. Florida landlords may legally stand by and bill you as rent comes due, and our Colorado record finds no statute - just case law - while RCW 59.18.310 both requires the effort and caps the bill at the lesser of two figures.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Seattle, WA
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.
This extract stops before the end of the paragraph. What follows it in the lease is a sentence about when late fees and interest may accrue on accelerated amounts, which is left out below:
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.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“the entire principal rent amount”
This is the number the clause reaches for, and Washington puts a lid on it. Under RCW 59.18.310 the liability is the lesser of two figures: the entire rent remaining on the lease, or the rent accrued to date plus the shortfall against fair rental value plus the landlord's actual costs of re-renting. The lease's figure is only ever the first of those two, so it can be the answer but it can never be exceeded - and once the unit re-lets at a decent rent the second figure is usually much smaller.
“owed for the full lease term”
The full term is the measure only because this is a fixed-term lease. Washington writes a separate and far shorter rule for a month-to-month tenancy: the tenant owes rent for the 30 days following the landlord's discovery of the abandonment, or until the next rent due date, whichever comes first. The same abandonment can therefore produce a bill for one month or for the balance of a year, and which one depends on a fact about your tenancy rather than on anything in this paragraph.
See the example
“prior to expiration of the lease term”
The clock in Washington starts when the landlord learns of the abandonment, not at the end of the term, and from that moment a reasonable effort to mitigate is required. Re-renting is not free to you either: the statute's second figure includes the landlord's actual costs of re-renting alongside the fair-rental shortfall, so turnover and advertising costs can properly appear on the bill. What they cannot do is push the total past the entire remaining rent, because the statute takes the lesser of the two.
“to the extent of the third party rental agreement”
The lease credits you by whatever the replacement tenant agreed to pay. Washington's ceiling is measured differently: its second figure uses the shortfall against fair rental value, not simply the number on the new lease. That cuts both ways and is worth understanding before arguing it. A landlord who re-lets cheaply has not automatically transferred the whole gap to you, and a landlord who re-lets at a premium has not created a windfall for you either.
See the example
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.
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.
Washington Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- RCW 59.18.310 requires the landlord to make a reasonable effort to mitigate damages upon learning of the abandonment.
- For month-to-month tenancies the tenant owes rent for the 30 days following the landlord's discovery of abandonment or the next rent due date, whichever comes first.
- For longer terms, liability is the lesser of the entire remaining rent or accrued rent plus the fair-rental shortfall and actual re-renting costs.
- These statutory caps mean an acceleration clause cannot lawfully collect more than the statute allows.
Sources include RCW 59.18.310 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
In Washington the limit comes from one statute, RCW 59.18.310. It works by capping what an acceleration clause can collect.
- The duty to re-rent. Once the landlord learns the unit has been abandoned, they must make a reasonable effort to mitigate damages, meaning to cut the loss by finding a new tenant.
- Month-to-month. You owe rent for the 30 days after the landlord discovers the abandonment, or until the next rent due date, whichever comes first.
- Fixed term. You owe the lesser of two amounts: all the rent left on the lease, or the rent already due plus the fair-rental shortfall and actual re-renting costs.
Because the duty starts when the landlord learns of the abandonment, the date you gave notice and returned the keys can matter. Statutes are amended, so check the text of RCW 59.18.310 as it reads on the day you need it.
What's Specific to Seattle
No Seattle section we read adds anything specific on acceleration, and RCW 59.18.310 controls. Our record of Seattle law describes the city's just-cause eviction ordinance as covering terminations rather than lease-break damages.
What happens to your old unit can matter more here than any local rule. A unit that re-rents quickly leaves a smaller shortfall to prove, so save a copy of its new listing the day it appears.
It should. RCW 59.18.310 requires a reasonable effort to re-rent once abandonment is known, and a silent lease does not erase that duty.
Fair clauses show the math. Compare it with the fixed-term cap in RCW 59.18.310: the lesser of the two figures.
The statute caps that demand. On a fixed term you still owe only the lesser figure, whatever the clause says.
A clause saying the landlord has no obligation to re-rent runs against RCW 59.18.310. Get it reviewed before you sign.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- RCW 59.18.310 on app.leg.wa.gov, Washington's own publication of its statutes.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Every remaining month billed the day you leave
On a fixed term the statute caps the bill at the lesser figure. Ask how the landlord got from the clause to the number on your bill.
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No duty to re-rent
Language saying the landlord need not look for a new tenant. Washington requires a reasonable effort once they learn the unit was abandoned.
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Accelerated rent plus a re-letting fee
The lease takes all remaining rent and a separate re-letting charge. Actual re-renting costs count inside the cap, not on top of it.
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Deposit kept plus accelerated rent
Your whole deposit is kept and the full balance still comes due. Ask in writing which amounts are being credited against what you owe.
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More than 30 days billed on month-to-month
Month-to-month liability runs 30 days after the landlord discovers the abandonment, or to the next rent due date if that comes first.
Your Rights as a Seattle Tenant
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A landlord who must try
RCW 59.18.310 requires a reasonable effort to mitigate damages once your landlord learns the unit is abandoned.
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Month-to-month capped at 30 days
Rent runs for the 30 days after discovery of the abandonment or until the next rent due date, whichever comes first.
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The lesser of two numbers
On a fixed term you owe the lesser of all remaining rent or accrued rent plus the fair-rental shortfall and actual re-renting costs.
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Re-renting costs must be real
The statute counts actual re-renting costs, so ask for invoices and listing records instead of accepting a round number.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the acceleration paragraph
Search your lease for 'accelerate', 'all remaining rent' or 'balance of the term'. Copy the exact wording.
Give dated written notice you're leaving
Email it and mail it. The duty to re-rent turns on when the landlord learns of the abandonment, so make that date easy to prove.
Photograph the unit and return the keys
Do both on a date you can prove. Rent disputes and damage disputes are settled from the same paper trail.
Watch for the new listing
Check Zillow, Apartments.com and the building's own site weekly. A quick relisting is evidence the shortfall is smaller than the accelerated demand.
Ask for an itemized statement
Ask in writing for the re-rental date, the new rent and receipts for actual re-renting costs. You owe the lesser figure, not the invoice total.
Get free Washington tenant help
Call the Northwest Justice Project's CLEAR line or the Tenants Union of Washington State before you pay anything or sign a repayment plan.
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Lease Acceleration rules near Washington
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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