Set the notice. Price the option.
Preserve protected exits.
Create an optional lease buyout with clear notice, a lawful amount, surrender conditions and deposit treatment while preserving statutory and lease-based termination rights.
- Defined early-exit option
- Payment and surrender terms
- Protected-rights carve-out
How it works
From the existing lease to a signed early termination buyout addendum both parties can keep
- 01
Check enforceability
Review local fee and mitigation law.
- 02
Define the option
State who may elect and when.
- 03
Set the economics
Explain exactly what payment resolves.
Last updated August 20, 2026
Written by LawLease EditorialReviewed by LawLease Legal Team
By lease document
Documents related to the early termination buyout addendum
An early termination buyout addendum gives the tenant a defined contractual option to end a fixed-term lease before expiration by satisfying stated notice, payment and surrender conditions. It is separate from statutory termination rights and a later negotiated mutual termination.
What is a early termination buyout addendum?
An early termination buyout addendum gives the tenant a defined contractual option to end a fixed-term lease before expiration by satisfying stated notice, payment and surrender conditions. It is separate from statutory termination rights and a later negotiated mutual termination.
This document is also called:
- Lease buyout addendum
- Early release option
- Early termination fee agreement
- Fixed-term exit addendum
This document supplements the signed residential lease agreement and should be read with all other valid addenda.
Fee, mitigation and protected-termination rules
State law may treat a buyout amount as liquidated damages, a fee or a prohibited penalty and may preserve the landlord’s mitigation duty. The clause should clearly state whether the option replaces future rent after full performance and avoid double recovery.
The buyout cannot burden nonwaivable rights involving military service, domestic violence, uninhabitable conditions or other protected termination grounds. Security-deposit accounting and pre-termination obligations remain subject to separate law.
Written scope
with the property, parties and covered conduct identified
Local rules
checked before terms are signed or enforced
Complete record
kept with notices, reports and supporting evidence
- Make the option truly optional
- State how the tenant elects it and what happens if the landlord accepts performance.
- Avoid double collection
- Define whether the fee resolves future rent and how re-rental, concessions and other damages are treated.
- Carve out protected exits
- Do not charge the buyout when a controlling statute or lease term provides penalty-free termination.
How to prepare a early termination buyout addendum
Five checks turn the policy or disclosure into clear signed paperwork.
Review local fee and mitigation law.
- Penalty or liquidated-damages rules
- Duty to mitigate
- Protected termination statutes
Free sample early termination buyout addendum
This sample shows the option structure. Your answers supply the notice period, buyout amount, termination date and surrender conditions.
Early Termination Buyout Addendum
OPTION. Tenant may elect contractual early termination by completing every lawful condition in this addendum.
NOTICE. Written election must be delivered at least days before the requested termination date.
BUYOUT AMOUNT. The agreed amount is , due .
EFFECT. After full performance, the completed agreement states which future-rent obligations are released and prevents double recovery.
PROTECTED RIGHTS. No buyout is required for a termination right that applicable law or the lease makes penalty-free.
Questions about this early termination buyout addendum?
Real humans read every message. For fee enforceability, mitigation, SCRA, survivor rights or habitability exits, get local legal review.