RPA Tenant Rights Blog » lease

Breaking My Lease

Kissalvoe — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 10:22:10 +0000

I have been with my apartment complex in Albuquerque, NM since May. We signed an 8 month lease and it ends as of January 31st. However, I do not want to stay that long. I don’t feel secure in staying for a few more months.

Several times we have placed work orders for maintenance to fix a door or our ceiling fan (the light no longer worked!). It took 4 weeks for them to even go LOOK at the fan. They said they would replace it the following week but never did. Two weeks later, there was a leak, apparently from our master bathroom toilet, which flooded our apartment and the apartment below us. The call went to the office around 10am. I leave for work at 5am and don’t use that bathroom other than for showers.

THe office never recorded our new contact numbers from months before. They were always able to get ahold of us through our agent/alternate contact, but not on this day! They never notified us of the problem. Maintenance went in the apartment and ruined things with their negligence. They threw wet items all over the bed, onto the living room floor, filled backpacks with expensive electronic equipment and left it in puddles of water.

I didn’t come home til after 6pm and when I did, I had no knowledge of what happened. My apartment was thrown upside down. The carpet was torn up and a blower was running to dry underneath. All of the lights (that worked) and fans in the house had been running all day. All without our knowledge.

I took a complaint to my apartment manager who said it was our fault. The negligence was on OUR part because we “left the water running”. I asked him if I was supposed to shut the water to the toilets off everytime I left the house. He said it was a leak we didn’t report. And why? BECAUSE IT WAS A LEAK WE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT. When I left for work that morning, there was nothing out of place. The floor in the bathroom was completely dry. He refuses to take any responsibility for the fact that nobody bothered to contact us, the fact that the maintenance men were negligent and not only ruined things on their own (NOT due to water damage directly from the leak), and that they left all electricity running for 8 hours, using up resources that WE have to pay for.

On top of all of this, and the reason I really don’t want to stay… The master bedroom, where the carpet was lifted for the blower, smells like mold. It’s damp (two weeks later) and smells moldy. The apartment manager refuses to work with us at all. What can I do to either make him work with us or get our of our lease so we can move somewhere SAFE and free of mold?

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Can my landlord do this?

cj — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 23:49:28 +0000

I signed a lease and got the keys for an apartment declaring I had 1 small dog. My family was coming to be with me from another state. They told me the had another small dog with them. I called the landlord to tell her and she stated that it was a lease breaker to have another dog.She told me she was going to charge me a daily rate until she rented the apartment again and was keeping my 1st month rent and deposit. I never stayed or moved into the apartment. Can she do that? Help!

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Lease Cosigner

Tue, 03 May 2011 17:18:56 +0000

I co-signed a 12-month lease with my son and daughter. The home had a swimming pool which we have to carry a 1/2 million dollar policy on. The landlord found that prior tenant had torn liner and other stuff did not work. She hired someone to get estimate on repairs. In July property manager called and said landlord was not going to open pool and we could get out of the lease. As my son had enlisted in the Army and we could get a smaller place. We started to look for a place at that time. We found a place that would allow my daughters dog in September and when I told the property manager, she kept stating that we are responsible for the rent. We would not have looked for a new place had the manager not said we could get out of the lease.

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Landlord Harassment

anonymous — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:08:33 +0000

MY ROOMMATE AND I SIGNED A ONE YEAR LEASE. MY ROOMMATE MOVED OUT WIFHOUTWITHOUT ANY NOTICE. HE LEFT ME TO PAY HIS HALF OF THE RENT DUE IN 3 DAYS. I PAYED THE FULL AMOUNT ON TIME. NOW THE LANDLORD IS SAYING THAT I OWE HIM MORE MONEY FOR THE DEPOSIT SINCE MY ROOMMATE MOVED OUT. THE LEASE HAS BOTH OF OUR NAMES ON IT CURRENTLY. THE LANDLORD DID NOT MAKE A NEW CONTRACT OR PROVIDE ANY LEGAL DOCUMENTATION TO ME STATING I OWE MORE MONEY. ALSO NO WHERE IN THE LEASE DOES IT SAY I WOULD HAVE TO PAY MORE FOR ONE PERSON LEAVING. TE LANDLORD HAS CALLED ME CONTINUOUSLY, HAS SAID HE WOULD COME TO MY WORK, AND HAS ENTERED MY HOME WHILE I WAS AWAY ON VACATION ACCUSING ME OF BEING THERE. I FEEL UNSAFE AND HARRASSED AND DO NOT FEEL AS IF I CAN CONTINUE LIVING THERE UNDER THESE CONDITIONS. IS THERE A WAY TO GET OUT OF THIS LEASE WITH NO PENALTIES?

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Roommate Breaking Lease

Tenant — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:05:33 +0000

My roommate and I signed a 12 month lease. At the end of 10 month my roommate has decided to break a lease because she does not have a job and cannot afford to pay rent. We have tried to the speak to the landlord to come up with an amicable solution but they are refusing to speak to us. I have even offered to rent their empty 1 bedroom apartment and sign another 12 month lease if they let us out of our first lease contract. I have a really good relationship with the property manager but my roommate does not. She does not care if the landlord puts this on our credit report. My question is since my roommate is breaking lease – I have no problem paying my portion of the rent – why doesn’t the landlord simply go after her?

I am trying to work out a solution but the property manager notified me that the landlords don’t want to speak to me. What can I do in this situation? If I also move out when my roommate moves out. Can they report this to the credit bureaus without even trying to resolve this amicably?

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Unsigned Lease

Tenant — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:05:02 +0000

We signed a lease from June ’07 to June ’08 and when it came time to renew, our landlord just dropped a new lease off at our apartment. Well we’ve had some problems with them and wanted the new lease to have some changes made in it. Long story short, after they never returned my initial calls about the changes, I forgot about the unsigned lease. Just recently we decided to look for new places and I remembered they don’t have a signed copy of the lease. Can I just call them and say we’re moving out? They can’t charge us any broken-lease fees since there’s no signed copy of the lease, right? Any advise will do, we’re going to talk to them on Oct. 13th. Thanks!

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Lease Questions

Johnosn — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:44:10 +0000

I am renting a house in New Hampshire The first year I had a signed lease with the landlord the second year she left for florida with out me signing a lease see said the lease I had the previous year would carry over to this year. (I know that is not true state laws says that if there is no signed lease agreement it goes to month to month) This third year starting Jan 1 there is still no signed lease she typed up what she calls an addendum to last years (again last year no signed lease) lease saying that My rent will increase by $50 a month for the first six months and another $50 after another six months she is requiring me to get an electric fence for my dogs. My question is what lease would the addendum extend from? specially if there was no signed lease from the prior year. Also do I have the rights to put in the lease that landlord is not allowed to use my tools or equipment without prior notice and permision from the tenant? (she will take my rototiller, wheel barrow, gardening tools ect and use them without asking first nor pay me for the gass she burns in my equipment and sometimes not even return them back to me I have to go get them yet she charges me for when her husband plows my drive way without asking then tell me I have to pay him because he used gas to plow even though I was suppose to find my own person to plow they never gave me a chance now I have to pay them). Anything will help.

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Can repeated cockroach problems void a lease?

Tenant — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:43:37 +0000

My relative signed a one year lease on an apartment, and became unable to continue living here so we worked it out with the property agency that I would move in and assume the lease. While my relative was here I found a cockroach and the landlords had the apartment sprayed. Before I moved in, I was assured that the roaches were taken care of. Wrong! They just sprayed again (the 2nd time in around 3 months). They only sprayed 5/10 of the units, so I am figuring the bugs will go to the unsprayed apts and come back when the chemicals wear off. When I called the landlord to tell them about the last roach sighting, the man acted like it was no big deal and calmly notified me that bedbugs have also been a problem here..but he "assured" me that it was nothing to worry about right now because it usually isn’t a problem until the spring and summer. I have asthma and had to stay out for 4 hours plus many more hours for it to air out. The place still smells and there is a filmy residue on everything I was unable to cover, and the smell was also absorbed by everything in cupboards. I am a laid off college student with a limited income and can’t afford to keep washing everything at the laundromat. I would also like to be able to sleep peacefully again instead of worrying about all of this! The lease is co-signed by a 3rd relative, so I do not want to just leave and ruin his credit. Can I legally get out of this lease without ruining anyones credit and get my deposit back because of bugs?? How do I go about doing it? Is there a proper procedure? Merry Christmas and Thanks for reading this.

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breaking an apartment lease

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:07:01 +0000

Can the landlord keep the deposit check if we break the lease prior to the end?

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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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