<prompt> Human: Ive been renting on an apartment complex with 280 units. I have a 1 bedroom apartment and I pay close to 4000 a month. The startup I work for is having financial difficulties and I havent been paid my last salary.Ive been living in this apartment complex for the last 30 months. My lease was renewed in may 2015 for another year. Leases cannot be longer-term so every time I had to renew it increased 10-20.Now that things are going south, I cannot afford living here anymore.Ive paid this months rent and turned my 30day notice but they presented me a lease addendum contract with 2 options:- pay 6500 right now to break the lease contract - become liable for the rent without being allowed to live in my unit till someone rents it. I dont have 6500 siting in my bank account and the alternative seems like a joke. They even have a clause that says that if they rent it below the price Im paying Im liable for the price difference till the end of my original lease May 2016. Theres no clause preventing them to raise the lease to a rate that no-one will be willing to rent it. I didnt sign or agree to any of the options but they emailed me saying that if I dont pick one it will default to the second option.Im moving back to my country in 2 weeks and the salaries there wont be even close to what I was making in SF. I want to leave things in order but I have no clue what to do.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.Edit: thanks guys for the overwhelming response.Ill try to summarize the key points for people in similar situations.- if you have a reasonable landlord, discuss the issue ASAP. In my case, Im sure if I had given a 60 or 90 day notice it would have been easier to find a new tenant by the time I leave.- if you are planning to break your lease, law is against you. Plan ahead and expect 2 months worth of rent as penalty.- do your best to line up a new tenant by the time you leave and work with your landlord to make it happen.- landlords are obligated to do everything possible to put your unit to market so you shouldnt get screwed deliberately if you are dealing with honest management. With that said, work with them and make sure your unit is being listed and keep an eye and get in touch often to see if its getting rented or if you can do anything to help make it happen.- foreigners working in the US with a VISA might think about just leaving the country and forget what happened. Your debt might end up in the Civil court and you will be guilty by default. It will end up in your record and might backfire if you ever comeback to the US. Forget about working in the US. Visiting the US as a tourist might be also risky. Life is a long path and you never know where you are going to be in a few years but writing off a country like US forever to avoid terminating your lease in good faith seems extremely stupid.On a final note, everybody pays less rent than I do. Thats the price engineers pay in Silicon Valley to let you spend all day long on your phones using Google, Facebook, reddit, and what not. Enjoy it.Assistant: And kids, thats why you have an emergency fund AND rent a place you can afford.Human: We were short of condescending messages on this thread. Thanks for your helpful contribution. Edit: upvoted for at answering.  <response>: Hes not wrong. You work at a startup and took an apartment that was 4000 a month. You do know thats 48000 a year? If you make 100k and pay 30k into tax you have 70k left of which rent is 70. So youre either really careless about your money or make more than 100k. If the former is true then Reddthrowns comment is 100000 true because you spent 70 of your income on rent. If the latter is true then you make six figures but budgeted so horribly that you cannot afford to pay rent.But I still dont see the problem here because in this area you can find someone to sublet in a matter of days. Have you even put it up on craigslist and AirBNB yet?Or, just find another job. Startups are a dime a dozen around here. 