You, Mr. Landlord are pleased to find qualified tenants for your rental house. The man and woman sign a one-year lease on Tuesday.

On Thursday the male tenant contacts you and says they have changed their minds because his girlfriend thinks she sees "dead people" in the bathroom.

He expects you to cancel the lease!

What do you do, hire an exorcist?

No, you smile and softly explain... "Listen Bub, that was a legal contract you signed. It binds both of us to everything printed on those sheets of paper.... the laws says so, that's who!

And that's true... both parties must agree to break a legal contract... it can't be done unilaterally (usually). In this case the contract is the well prepared, solid gold lease.

Is your reluctant tenant on the hook for an entire year's worth of monthly lease payments?

It brings a tear to the eye of we hard boiled landlords... but he probably is not obligated to pay rent for the entire year.

Courts have ruled that the landlord has to make a good-faith effort to find a new tenant for the unit as soon as possible.

As soon as one is found the original crybaby is released from the contract.

The cost of renting to the new tenant can be deducted from the security deposit you collected from Mr. Crybaby. That includes advertising and a copy of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas you give him as a go-away gift.