> You're confusing a few things. Because SF (until recently) has disproportionately been a sellers market, leases are written such that they benefit the landlor

> You're confusing a few things. Because SF (until recently) has disproportionately been a sellers market, leases are written such that they benefit the landlord. Right, which is why it makes sense that landlords would allow tenants to break leases for a fee. The landlord gets two/three months of rent from the current tenant, plus they have a waiting list of people and will have the unit moved into within a few days paying higher rent. So the benefits to the landlord is more money. They get to legally double-charge for rent and raise rent prices on an accelerated schedule at the cost of one or two days of lost occupancy. The only time this doesn't benefit the landlords is when rent prices collapse. But considering SF rent prices have been inflating at a double digit annual clip for a decade or more now, I doubt any landlord considered a drop in rent prices to be possible.