I am a landlord and also a licensed broker. Aside from simply trying to negotiate with the landlord to break your lease early, there's nothing you can legally do to break it and not be on the hook for the remainder of the lease term. HOWEVER, if you abandon the premises, the landlord has a legal obligation to make his/her "best effort" to re-rent the property out. If the landlord finds a new tenant, then you are off the hook from that point on. Any months during the lease where rent was not paid and the landlord didn't have a new tenant in place, you'll be on the hook for. If you choose not to pay those amounts, the landlord can pursue civil action against you to recover them.Whether your landlord will actually follow the law and make a reasonable effort to re-rent the property out really is determined by whether you were paying above/below market rate for the place, and/or how easy it will be for the landlord to come after you to recover that money.The one thing the landlord can not legally do is collect double rents (i.e from you and a new tenant).