mitigate damages by attempting to re-rent the premises. If a landlord elects to hold the tenant to the tenancy, the landlord’s re-renting the premises to another cannot, standing alone, constitute an acceptance of surrender of the premises. A landlord’s actions in dealing exclusively with a successor tenant, proposing a new long-term lease to the successor, accepting higher rent from the successor as called for in the proposed lease, and failing to communicate in any way to the tenant that the landlord deemed the tenant responsible for the remainder of the tenancy clearly evidenced an intent to accept the tenant’s surrender of the premises. Vander Wielen v. Van Asten, 2005 WI App 220, 287 Wis. 2d 726, 706 N.W.2d 123, 04-1788.
704.29 AnnotationA landlord has an obligation to rerent when a tenant breaches a lease. Specific performance is not a proper remedy. Chi-Mil Corp. v. W.T. Grant Co., 422 F. Supp. 46 (1976).