RPA Tenant Rights Blog » Lease termination

Lease expired…

fif — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 02:48:11 +0000

We had a signed lease from Nov 2006 Oct 2007. Now we are moving out – back to Germany and seem to slide into truble with the agent. We did not sign a follow up lease that was sent half a year ago, after we lived one year without contract as we knew we were going home this summer.Besides sending the late follow up contract, the agent was not responsive during the 2.5 years and know the agent says she wants to enforce the contract, claims the first contract is still valid, and is not cooperative on the phone regarding showing times, for example.The agent wants to put up a Lock Box and with 30′ notice, any agent can show the house. Is that common? We have little kids that still nap and don’t want to be a sight seeing place… What would be reasonable warning time and restriction in the time window (the first contract says: 10 AM to 8 PM). In general, are the rules from the first contact still valid or do we have other NJ law that governs, for example, when we have to available ot for showing, to give notice? As we leave the country, I’d like to use the deposit for the last 1.5 month. Any lega chance to do so – I heard it is common practice to do so. Is there a NJ renter protection association that we could speak to?Thanks, Fifi

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Cancel Lease after lease renewal?

Renee' — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 03:39:09 +0000

I am losing my job and found one out of state. We were not going to be able to pay rent if I didn’t get a new job anyways. We were made to sign a lease renewal to our lease in February, but it doesn’t actually go into effect until July 16th. Is there any way I can get out of this?

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Need out of lease…several issues from bugs to handicaps

Tenant — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:37:14 +0000

Hi, I live in Tennessee. We have lived in this apartment for 17mos now. A lot of our problems started when neighbors moved in 3weeks before our 1st lease was up. Our apartments are setup like duplexes to give you a layout idea. The new neighbors’ boyfriend decided one night to beat the crap out of her, bust in her door, break out the windows and steal her car. I had to call the police and they took over 30mins to respond. I also found out the boyfriend had a gun. Guns go through walls and my baby’s room is right next to their rooms. Anyway, I felt very unsafe after all of this and by our lease they should have been evicted within 3days of the episode. Instead the apartment waited 2weeks to fix the windows and we ran out of timeto find a new place. After that during the 2week transient period of not knowing if we were staying or going, we had phone calls from the apartment management to both myself and my husband by 2 different people saying that if we signed the new lease by the end of the month our rent would stay the same. We go in and renew the lease because we have no where else to go. Well rent rolls around and we recieve a note saying we still owe them another $50. I have no idea what for. I go in and talk with the manager. He pulls out the lease and shows me where an actual number for the rent amount should have been typed in and we find typed out word for word the amount that is being deducted from the standard rent and the place saying the final rent amount and dates tha it is valid blank. It says we will recieve a deduction of $ one hundred and forty. It doesn’t say from what though. He turns another page and shows me that marketrate is $720 and says our rent is 140 from 720…so 580. Nevermind the two other blanks he says. I wondered if the lease was even valid at this point. Because the rent went up we haven’t been able to pay it on time since and he accepted partial payments, then he moved to another complex and the new lady says she won’t take partial payments which after late fees bumps our rent up to 645mo. I don’t even make 600 a mo and my husband barely makes 1100mo. So now we can’t afford the place at all. And the last two things are ants and handicap accessibility. Our apartment, the neighbors’ apartment and several other units are all super invetsted with black ants. They get into everything, bite and regardless of how much I clean they stay. The office is aware of the problem as everyone complains about them,but they don’t do anything about them. Last I am expecting baby #2. I already had back issues and now I have been considered temporarly handicapped. I am getting a handicap placard and have been given strict restrictions on walking and stair usage. I may have to use a wheelchair soon too. Our apartment is a 3bdrm, 2 story townhouse. I can no longer climbthe satirs both inside and outside. We don’t have 3bdrm handicap apartments here, only 2bdrm and they are actually higher in rent. I am wondering if I have good grounds to terminate my lease early? It’s not up til March of next year, but my back, peace of mind, and safety can’t wait til then.

Our lease does say that under no circumstances can the lease be terminated early. It does say we can be evicted for no longer meeting program money caps on income per month, but even if evicted we still lose our 350 pet deposit, 150 security deposit, and have to pay them 1 months rent and a fee of 1680 within 2weeks to break the lease. I don’t have that kind of money to break the lease. I actually don’t mind them keeping the depositsso long as we can leave without paying anything else. The apartment does some small paint touchups, blinds replaced, carpet cleaning and some carpet patches need replaced by the door but nothing major.

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Early termination of lease…

Wina — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:52:15 +0000

We are moving from Colorado to California and trying to find a rental through Craigslist postings. We found a home and told the landlord we had 2 small dogs. My husband went to see the home and found the fencing was not equipped to keep our small dogs safe. The home was also in disrepair. I called the landlord and apologized that we needed to get out of the lease. We sent him a deposit and first months rent and signed a 12 month rental agreement. His responce was that he would talk with us tomorrow but that we signed a legal document agreeing to rent the home for 12 months. I am unsure what he will say tomorrow but I want to be prepared with knowing my rights in this situation.

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Extra Month Penalty

Stressed College Student — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:41:50 +0000

Hi everybody. Me and my roomies signed a 6 month lease 6 months ago, which will end on the 30th of this month. We are all going our seperate ways, so we decided not to extend the lease. Upon the landlords inspection, she gave us a few things we need to repair, which we are fixing, but then asked for an extra months rent while they searched for more tenants. Are we legally required to pay this? We have paid the total amount of rent listed on the lease, and the lease states that it will not automatically be extended at the end of the lease. Any penalties or extra fees all deal with early termination of the lease, which is not our situation as the lease is terminating as per the conditions stated in the lease. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I will be checking this forum for the next few weeks, but if you have any advice and can email me, I would be very appreciative. Thanks for the help, M. Groat (mgroat@gmu.edu)

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Cancel Renewal

Tenant — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:11:48 +0000

I moved into my complex almost a year ago. When a friend of mine decided she wanted to stay here, we went to the office and had them move us. They waived the transfer fee since I referrred someone and whe signed her lease for a longer period of time. I decided to renew. Once they movede me to the new apartment and had me fill out one of the damages sheets, I noted that there was a spot on the ceiling. I was told that it was just water damage from a leak they previously fixed. Late into May when it was raining, I noticed a leak. It was reported and I was told it would be fixed. Unfortunately that was not the case. I made a couple more verbal complaints, and they put in work orders. The leak has now apparently been fixed. We also noticed a couple of new leaks in the kitchen that were leaking into light fixtures. I have to wait to see if the leaks are actually fixed when it rains. Now if I hadn’t have renewed my lease, I wouldn’t have to stay here anymore. Now that I’ve experienced such a problem, I don’t really want to live here anymore. I’m wondering if there’s a way to cancel my renewal?

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Getting deposit back from landlord

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:11:07 +0000

My family recently moved from a house. We asked about getting deposit back from landlord and they refused. Let me try to explain this a little bit so you understand.

We moved into this house thinking it was a great house. We lived there for a year and a half. Over this time stuff started to fall apart. Within two weeks of moving in, I called the person over that showed us the house to point out a few things that we had noticed one thing is the carpet and markings on the walls. He told me not to worry about any of it that we would not be charged. He has since passed on. Other things happened while we lived there. Mold grew in different areas in the house, my daughter’s ceiling started to fall, my son now has allergies, and the master shower could of fell at any time through the floor. My daughter’s light acted up and it was fixed within a week. It was a wiring issue. There was a wiring issue in a hallway light that they did not fix before we moved. We moved out before the lease was up due to all the issues in the house. But still, shouldn’t we get our deposit back?

I asked for the deposit back. They came back and told me that I owed them for the carpet that I told them about in the beginning, as well as want us to pay for all the repairs in the house.

I am trying to find is how much a tenant should pay for carpet. I am also wondering should a tenant pay for what they pointed out to the landlord as issues though out the occupancy?

Thank you for all help

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Verbal termination of lease agreement

Phil — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:53:09 +0000

My landlord and I agreed verbally to an early termination of our lease. We were to recieve our full deposit back. We paid a pet deposit of 1300 and one months rent equally 1300 for a total of 2600.00. I called my lanlord after we had not recieved our deposit 40 days after we had returned the keys. I was told his business partner (who is not listed on the lease) refused to sign off on the refund of the deposit. The business partner handles the finacial end of things. I was upset, because we had a verbal agreement and made our decisons based upon that agreement. I have called the landlord serval times and I am getting the run around. I need this money asap! I do not know what else to do? Legal, or what?

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Cancel rental agreement

Vera Z — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:48:22 +0000

I am in a 12 month contract with an appartment complex. We signed into the lease on Aug 28, 2008. We are in the process of buying a house and need to break our contract at the end of the month of Feb. According to our contract, if we break the lease 6 months or more into the contract, we have to pay $1400 penalty fee. If we however break the contract lesst than 6 months into the lease, we have to pay double $2800. My thinking that after Feb 28th, we have stayed at our appartment for 6 months, so we will pay the $1400 for breaking the lease. The manager at the appartment tells me that in fact we have to stay through the end of March in order not to pay the double penalty. This makes no sense to me. If we stay through the end of march, it means we would have stayed there for 7 months. Can somebody tell me at which point in our contract is it considered that we have 6 or less months left on the lease?

Thanks! Vera

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