Breaking a Lease in California: Military, Domestic Violence and Uninhabitable Exceptions

Breaking a lease in California without owing the rest of the rent is possible in three situations the law spells out: military orders, domestic violence and certain other crimes, and a unit that is legally uninhabitable. For everyone else, Civil Code 1951.2 limits what the landlord can recover to rent they could not reasonably have avoided losing. Unpaid rent can also come out of your deposit, so our California security deposit law guide is worth reading alongside this one.

Month-to-month tenants don’t need to break anything

If you rent month to month, you end the tenancy by giving written notice at least as long as the rental period, which is 30 days for a monthly tenancy (Civil Code 1946). You and the landlord can agree in writing to a shorter notice period of no less than 7 days. The rest of this page is about fixed-term leases, such as a one-year lease with months still to run. See California lease termination notice periods for the notice rules.

Military orders: the federal SCRA

For service members, the governing law is the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. 3955. It lets a tenant terminate a residential lease in two situations:

• The lease was signed before the tenant entered military service.
• While in service, the tenant receives permanent change of station (PCS) orders, or deployment orders for a period of 90 days or more.

The tenant delivers written notice of termination with a copy of the orders. For a lease with monthly rent, termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent due date following the notice. Rent is prorated to that date, the landlord may not charge an early-termination penalty, and rent paid in advance for the period after termination must be refunded within 30 days.

Say a service member with rent due on the 1st delivers notice and orders on Friday, October 9, 2026. The next rent due date is November 1, so the lease ends December 1, 2026. November rent is owed; December rent is not.

Domestic violence and other crimes: Civil Code 1946.7

Civil Code 1946.7, last amended by SB 1017 (Stats. 2022, ch. 558), lets a tenant end a lease early if the tenant, a household member or an immediate family member was the victim of:

• domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking;
• abuse of an elder or dependent adult;
• a crime that caused bodily injury or death;
• a crime involving a firearm or other deadly weapon; or
• a crime involving the use or threat of force against the victim.

Documentation. The notice must be in writing and have one of these attached (1946.7(b)):

• a temporary restraining order, emergency protective order or protective order;
• a written report by a peace officer stating that a report was filed;
• a statement from a qualified third party, such as a health practitioner, domestic violence or sexual assault counselor, human trafficking caseworker or victim of violent crime advocate, on the form the statute sets out; or
• any other documentation that reasonably verifies the act or crime.

If the victim is an immediate family member who did not live with you, and nothing happened in or within 1,000 feet of your unit, the notice must also include a written statement that you are relocating for the safety or well-being of you or your family member (1946.7(c)).

Timing. The notice must be given within 180 days of the date the order was issued, the report was made or the act occurred (1946.7(d)).

What you owe. Rent for no more than 14 calendar days after giving notice, prorated if the unit is re-rented sooner. You are released from any further rent or other payment under the lease, and the landlord cannot keep your deposit or advance rent because of the termination (1946.7(e) and (f)). Normal deposit rules still apply to any damage.

Say your rent is $2,100 a month. If you divide monthly rent by 30 to get a daily rate of $70, 14 days of rent comes to $980, compared with the months that might otherwise remain on the lease.

The landlord may not share the information you provide except in limited circumstances (1946.7(i)), may not refuse to rent to you because you used this section (1946.7(j)), and faces statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 for violations (1946.7(k)). Other tenants on the lease who are not covered remain bound by it (1946.7(g)).

Uninhabitable conditions: 1941.1, 1942 and 1942.4

What “habitable” means. Civil Code 1941.1 lists the standard characteristics of a habitable unit, including waterproofing, working plumbing and gas, hot and cold running water, heating, electrical systems, clean grounds free of vermin, garbage receptacles, and safe floors and stairways. AB 628 (Stats. 2025, ch. 342) added a working stove and a working refrigerator for leases entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026. A tenant can choose to supply their own refrigerator through a lease provision, and a stove or refrigerator subject to a recall must be repaired or replaced within 30 days of the landlord receiving notice of the recall.

Repair and deduct, or vacate. Under Civil Code 1942, if you notify the landlord of conditions that make the unit untenantable and the landlord doesn’t repair them within a reasonable time, you may either:

• make the repair yourself and deduct the cost from rent, up to one month’s rent, no more than twice in any 12-month period; or
• vacate the unit, in which case you are discharged from paying further rent as of the date you leave.

Acting after 30 days from your notice is presumed reasonable, and a shorter period can apply if the circumstances require it. The remedy isn’t available if the tenant caused the condition (1942(c)). Put the notice in writing and keep a copy; it is the start date for the reasonable-time clock.

Code-enforcement cases. Under Civil Code 1942.4, a landlord may not demand or collect rent, raise the rent or serve a three-day notice to pay or quit when the unit is substandard, a code-enforcement official has given written notice of the problem, it has gone unabated for 35 days or more without good cause, and the tenant did not cause it. Damages include actual damages plus $100 to $5,000, with attorney fees to the prevailing party.

Everyone else: the landlord’s duty to mitigate

If none of those exceptions apply and you leave a fixed-term lease early, you have breached it. Under 1951.2, the landlord can recover the unpaid rent, but only to the extent it exceeds “the amount of such rental loss that the lessee proves could have been reasonably avoided.” The landlord can also recover any other amount needed to compensate for the detriment the breach caused (1951.2(a)(4)).

The important words are “the lessee proves.” The law does not make the landlord show they tried hard to re-rent; it makes you show the loss could have been avoided. In practice, that means building your own record:

• Give written notice of your move-out date as early as you can.
• Offer to help re-rent: suggest qualified applicants and share the listing.
• Save screenshots of the landlord’s listing, or note if there isn’t one.
• Save listings for comparable units nearby at similar rents, to show the unit was rentable.

Say you have a 12-month lease at $2,500 a month and leave with five months, or $12,500 of rent, remaining. If the landlord re-rents the unit at the same rent six weeks later, the lost rent is roughly $3,750, plus any other losses the breach caused, not $12,500. If you can show that comparable units were renting within two weeks and the landlord left the unit unlisted for a month, you have an argument that part of the $3,750 could have been avoided. If the landlord re-rents at a lower rent, the difference over the remaining term can also be part of the claim.

Questions people ask

Can I break my lease if I buy a house or change jobs in California?

Not as a legal exception. You can leave, but under 1951.2 you may owe rent until the unit is re-rented, minus losses you prove could reasonably have been avoided.

How much notice does a domestic violence victim have to give to break a lease?

Written notice with documentation, within 180 days of the order, report or act. The tenant then owes no more than 14 days of rent (Civil Code 1946.7).

Can a landlord keep my deposit if I break my lease?

They can deduct unpaid rent they are actually owed, following the normal itemized-statement rules. They cannot keep it because of a termination under 1946.7.

Does the military clause apply to a lease signed while already in the service?

Yes, if the service member then receives PCS orders or deployment orders of 90 days or more (50 U.S.C. 3955).

Related California renter guides

• California lease termination notice: 30-day vs 60-day rules
• California security deposit law
• How to get your security deposit back
• Subletting laws in California
• California small claims court guide
• Printable tenant rights checklist

Under Civil Code 1942, a tenant who vacates after the landlord fails to repair untenantable conditions within a reasonable time is discharged from further rent as of the date of vacating.

This page explains what the cited California law says. It is not legal advice. Last verified September 28, 2026.