Here's the response I sent to Mr. Rose on Friday:

You can break any contract, including a lease.  There is almost always a financial penalty for doing so, which you can find in the contract.  It is often labeled as "liquidated damages and not a penalty," in addition to forfeiting the deposit.  Some new contracts can be rescinded with a few days or even a couple of weeks after signing, but that doesn't sound like what you're talking about.  Landlords who have a waiting list MAY be willing to waive or reduce the penalty under the circumstances, but they don't have to.  

Tenants and others responsible under contracts could argue that they should be released from their contract based on the impossibility of complying--basically an unforeseen event has made it impossible to fulfill their obligations under the contract.  Catastrophic as the current situation is, I'm not sure it truly satisfies the impossibility defense, which usually applies in situations like a fire that destroys the unit being rented, so that the landlord cannot rent it and the tenant cannot use it.  What we are looking at now is really impracticability--the landlord can still provide a habitable unit, but it has become very difficult for the tenant to pay.  In such a case, the law basically says the tenant can break the lease, but has to pay the landlord some compensation for the loss of anticipated income and additional effort required to clean and re-rent the unit.  Generally, the penalty agreed upon in advance will be enforced by courts.  We do argue, though, that if the tenant is already being charged liquidated damages, they should not also be responsible for cleaning costs, which should be included in liquidated damages.

To break their lease, tenants should give written notice 20 days before the end of the month (or more notice, if required by the lease) and expect to pay this month's rent in addition to whatever penalty appears in their lease, and forfeit their deposit.  As a practical matter, if they are overcharged, they will have to take the landlord to small claims court to argue the impossibility defense or that cleaning fees should not have been charged.

Note also that if tenants have a unilateral lease (one that allows the landlord to remove the tenant at any time for no cause with 20 days notice, but requires the tenant to remain for a fixed period), they may be able to successfully argue that the lease was invalid because it didn't really bind the landlord.  Again, that would require suing the landlord, though.  If you have a client who wants out of such a lease, they should call CLEAR before leaving to see if an attorney can negotiate a simple lease rescission (tenant walks away and pays only for this month's rent and actual damage to the unit) based on the unilateral contract.

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