Every time you sign a leasing agreement for your apartment rental, you're basically letting your landlord know that their income is guaranteed for the next 12 months or so and you're obligated to pay it. If you decide to leave early or break your lease, then they do have a clause in the agreement that will go into effect immediately.
Most rental communities nowadays have this early lease break clause to protect themselves in events that tenants want to leave early. Usually, rental office will allow you to do that, but you would be obligated to pay a fee, which could be at least 2 month's rent or greater. The worst case scenario is when a leasing office does not even accept any fee and holds you up responsible for remaining months on your lease.
Let's assume that you do pay up the fee, and leave the premises, then your landlord will let you go free and not pursue you for anything. However, if you don't pay your early termination fee, then your landlord will send your to a collections agency to collect the debt. As we all know, the collections agency is the first step before being reported to a credit bureau. You really don't want your name ending up on their call list. They will of course give you some grace period to pay up the balance or set up some kind of payment plan. However, after approximately 45 days of non-payment from you, you'll definitely be reported to credit bureau, which will greatly affect your credit for years to come.
My suggestion is to pay the fee and avoid the damage to your credit. This damage will cost you a lot more headache and inconveniences in the future.
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