> You could just e-mail the landlord 'sorry, I'm broke and don't have any money right now, feel free to waste time in court if you'd like'.
You'd be better off offering to pay some very small amount, pretending as though you were acting in good faith. Regardless of the merits of the contract, judges tend not to like 'I dare you to enforce the law' taunts.
Sure, yeah, I wouldn't put 'I dare you to enforce' in writing. And paying a small amount is a good idea.
I just think people on HN being unrealistic about how real estate law actually works is part of why these comments sections are filled with 'landlords are evil', left-wing populism. A huge huge number of tenants are going to simply not pay their landlords in this recession, and in practice the landlord has zero recourse. Millions of tenants are going to skip out on billions in rent, and it's not like a judge is going to enforce all these judgments in over-crowded housing court or small claims court or something. When the courts reopen, months from now, with a massive backlog.
This is doubly true for blue state judges. If you add up all the court cases in blue states where the defendant says 'sorry, I lost my job, I can't finish my lease or pay the termination fee or whatever', their win rate is like 90-95%+
You'd be better off offering to pay some very small amount, pretending as though you were acting in good faith. Regardless of the merits of the contract, judges tend not to like 'I dare you to enforce the law' taunts.