The condo owner, eager to rerent it, dropped the price to $3,500 from $3,900.

Those who cancel with less than a week's notice forfeit the payment unless she can rerent the room, a typical policy.

The buyer is an investor who will await tenancy turnover to rerent at market levels.

Some investors, aware of sluggish sales, are choosing instead to rerent at market rates when a unit becomes vacant.

Sure, I'll patch and paint your apartment, move in Section 8 tenants and just rerent the complex.

At that point the landlord will take action against the nonmusical tenant in order to recover and rerent the below-market apartment.

Since the galleries thrive on unpartitioned rooms, landlords can generally rerent the space to another gallery if the first one leaves, without making many changes.

Not only can the owner not rerent the apartment, but he also cannot occupy it himself or use it for a member of his own family.

Washington, D.C.: I'm wondering what a tenant who decides to move out is required to do to help the landlord rerent the unit.

"Of course, if the landlord does rerent the units, and they are still subject to rent stabilization, they must be rented in accordance with those regulations."

Even after renters move, they may rerent vacancies rather than sell at unfavorable prices, deciding on which to do on a case by case basis.

In this way, builders and their lenders can be more confident that in the event of vacancy, they can rerent at a level that the project requires.

Even if the landlord does rerent the apartment, Mr. Ng said, he could sue the letter writer for any lost rent or costs associated with the rerenting.

I feel this is grossly unfair because he would be getting more rent from me in the new apartment while being able to immediately rerent my present one for more money.

Mr. Ferrara noted that if some agreement cannot be reached, the landlord may or may not be required to mitigate financial losses by trying to rerent the apartment.

That means that a landlord can sue such a tenant for whatever rent the landlord loses, even if the landlord does not try to rerent the the apartment.

A. "If a landlord chooses not to rerent vacant apartments, that is the landlord's prerogative," said Joel E. Abramson, a Manhattan real estate lawyer.

Of course, a good number of renters forgo looking altogether, in particular those who rerent houses they have already occupied or who rely on the Internet for photographs and description.

As those who rented last season fretted over the direction of home prices and put off their decisions about whether to buy, many have chosen to rerent the homes they stayed in last summer.

Real estate executives said it has not been unusual for operators to rent space at $40 a square foot annually and to rerent it at $90 to $120 a square foot.

He said his company would work with clients who must change their dates "by trying to rerent the property, in which case we refund all but 25 percent, but we can never guarantee it."

In the judicial district that covers Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn, however, the courts have ruled that a residential landlord does have to try to rerent the apartment to mitigate damages.

In the Second Department, however, where no similar appellate court decision has been rendered, trial courts may still require landlords of residential tenants to mitigate their damages by making a good-faith effort to rerent apartments.

His policy on apartments that are vacated is to rerent them at market rates if they can earn 8 to 10 percent of their vacancy value, but to sell if they would earn 7 percent or less.

This means that the landlord has no obligation to attempt to rerent an apartment and can go after the tenant for rent due for as long as the apartment remains empty, up to the end of the lease term.