A Houston Landlord Attorney can help you to figure your remedies. Call Hector Chavana Jr. 713-979-2841. Landlords have certain specific remedies from tenants when the tenants breach. When a tenant breaches a lease by abandoning the property and terminating rental payments, the landlord has four options:
The landlord may treat the tenant’s conduct as an anticipatory breach of contract, and repossess and
The landlord may treat the tenant’s conduct as an anticipatory breach of contract, repossess the property and lease it to another tenant. Under that option, he can recover the contractual rental reduced by the amount to be received from the new tenant. Maida, supra; White v. Watkins, 385 S.W.2d 267, 270 (Tex.Civ.App.—Waco 1964, no writ).
If he elects this remedy and has relet the premises for the entire unexpired term, the measure of lessor’s damage is generally the difference between the rental originally contracted for and that realized from the reletting.
Thomas v. Morrison, 537 S.W.2d 274, 278 (Tex. Civ. App.—El Paso 1976, writ ref’d n.r.e.)
The landlord may declare the lease forfeited. Under that option, he relieves the tenant of liability for future rental payments. Rohrt v. Kelley Manufacturing Co., 162 Tex. 534, 349 S.W.2d 95, 98 (1961); Maida, supra.
In this case, Stovall repossessed the property and retained it, electing to treat Speedee Mart’s conduct as on anticipatory breach. Therefore, he is limited to the measure of damages discussed under the second option, i.e., the present value of the rentals that accrue under the lease contract *178 reduced by the reasonable cash market value of the lease for the unexpired term. Stovall did not, however, limit his recovery to the sum dictated by his election. He pleaded, sought, and recovered, the contractual rent for each month from the last payment to the time of trial, and the present value of the remaining rentals, reduced by the reasonable cash market value of the lease for the unexpired term. Thus, a substantial portion of the damages Stovall recovered, $25,600.00, was based on an option he waived when he repossessed the property.
Speedee Mart Inc. v. Stovall, 664 S.W.2d 174, 177–78 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 1983, no writ).