When can I legally terminate the lease agreement?

By Tenant

When entering into a lease agreement, I don’t really pay attention to its clauses.  All I’m interested in is to move and get settled in to my new apartment.  A few months after I moved in, problems would start to come out and depending on the intensity of the problems, I would like to have the option to terminate the lease early.  But by terminating, I wouldn’t want to pay any early termination fees or pay rent to cover the remaining months in my lease agreement.

So to be safe and well guided in my decision, I took the time to do my own research and for Owen some professional advise from lawyer forums too.  So here’s a list of the legal reasons for you to get out of a lease agreement early.

1. If the apartment complex or property has been destroyed.  So it’s basically common sense; if the place has been destroyed then the lease agreement becomes void.  But for that to happen, you would need to all in all the forces of nature including an earthquake or a hurricane.
2. If the lease agreement says that a landlord has the duty to make repairs within a specified time frame and he has not done so then you can terminate the lease agreement early.  That will be valid and legal.
3. The warranty of habitability is a commonly used term in rental.  Basically, if the landlord fails to provide you with a safe and healthy environment to live in, then the law will allow you to terminate the lease agreement.  Examples of violations to the warranty of habitability would be the presence of black mold and nonstop issues on sewage.
4. If your landlord violates any part of the building code, you can report the violation to your local housing authority.  The landlord will be give in a specific timeframe to the repairs.  But if the landlord fails to do the repair is or if he does to the repairs but he charges you additional for them, that would be considered illegal and you can terminate the lease early.
5. A profound change in life status may also be a valid and legal reason terminate a lease early.  However, this does not include divorce, separation or a new job in another state.  Changes in light status like death, long-term hospitalization, moving to an assisted facility and being called for the military are valid considerations.  In some cases, insanity and lengthy prison terms may also be used.
6. Bankruptcy also includes an option to get out of any lease agreement that you may have signed.  Of all the reasons, this may not be the most ideal because it marks you for the next 7 to 10 years.
7. Lastly, if the property is an illegal unit then you can break the lease agreement early.  An illegal unit is, for example, a converted basement, garage, and/or any other attached structures.

So there you go.  Those are the reasons for us, tenants, to break a lease agreement early.  But of course, your state laws may have their own say on the subject so it’s best to consult with your local state authority or with an attorney.

As for me, my apartment had some violations on the local building code so I had to terminate the lease early.  It wasn’t easy though because my landlord wasn’t an easy person to deal with anyway.  So I filed a complaint against my landlord and within a few days, I got a solution to my case.  I used RPA’s services through this link http://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/complaint_center.php. That’s their complaint center. Hope this helps you!

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