Can I break my lease?? - Edit I broke the lease! :)

[Horseaholic]

So I'm sitting here in my living room in 40 degree weather and my window in my apartment still has not been fixed. It's been a week since maintenance was here the day it broke. The day after we were told to file a police report. They finally had someone come the day before yesterday who told them he coulnd't do it. Still not even a mention of another estimate and no repairs in sight. Is this grounds for terminating my lease??? I'd love to get out of here and into a property with prado...if this is my chance to end it early I want to take it.

[Equine_Woman]

Read this article! It has a lot of great advice! Start documenting!
http://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/how-to-break-a-lease.html

Good luck! That's very annoying!

[Horseaholic]

I've read that article :) thanks EW. Im afraid I'm just going to have to talk to a lawyer.

[Equine_Woman]

It's always a good idea!

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Some advice from an attorney with expertise in the area is probably the most important thing to get.

I learned from a situation of my own some years ago that the key word to use in correspondence is "uninhabitable". When the leased (or rented) space is "uninhabitable", then you have cause to withold payment for whatever days it is in that condition. Or... something like that. But I'd talk to an attorney.

My own situation was an apartment with a lease, but the roof sprung a leak and rainwater poured in off the flat roof... filling my apartment with about two inches of water throughout. The water eventually drained out... but the apartment manager refused to replace the carpet or the (sagging) sheetrock in the ceiling. It smelled like a swamp. That's when I learned about the magic word "uninhabitable" in my correspondence with them. It worked wonders. I got out of my lease and got a new place. There's a little more to the story in that they wanted to take MY damage deposit... but that's something for another time.

[lovesfortune]

I would definitely start looking and making contact with the county board, etc. not sure how it works in FL but just try to get in touch with someone and they can hopefully lead you in the right direction.

many years ago i lived in an apt. and the heat stopped working. MN in the middle of winter with no heat. My landlord didn't fix it. After asking repeatedly and getting no where I made some phone calls to the county inspector, etc. Literally within a week my landlord was bending over backwards trying to make me happy an upgraded our apartment to the top floor and gave us a two bedroom WITH WORKING HEAT for the same price of our small one bedroom.

[WashingtonBay]

It sure seems like grounds for breaking the least to me, both for security and heat reasons. It seems like a reasonably good attorney could craft a letter and send it on his letterhead laying out why you've been forced to move by this uninhabitable situation and that may cover it and cost a few hundred bucks in atty fees.

Look around for some tenant rights/ landlord tenant law sites specific to florida... there may even be some kind of regulatory board you can seek advice from without necessarily hiring your own attorney.

[miatapony]

YES the Word "uninhabitable" will get thier attion .. i AC quit in AZ in an appt. and that is what i was told to say to them but i was also told to with hold rent till it was fixed .. but that was in my state look into the laws of your state. go into the office every day and complaine about the window .. that will also get on them call the corpate offices of the appts. See if you can get ahold of phone # for slumlords reports too.. see if trying to get those # help .. i would be calling the Appt. managres HOme office tho ..and complaine to them about it. everyone has a boss they answer too.... good luck

[gaited07]

Check with an attorney on this one. What one claims as uninhabitable might not fit the bill in the courts eye's. And if you don't have a case and you break the lease, you are responsible for the remaining months/years left on your contract and they will collect.
Have written documentation of any and all correspondences. Pictures/movies of the item(s) in question with documented times/dates. Don't forget the location of the broken window such as is it an invitation to thieves?

[WashingtonBay]

It's on the second floor, but it's a full length sliding glass door that is completely shattered... Since before Christmas.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/misfitnine/window004.jpg

What could have possibly happened? - Baywind Farm Horse Forum (http://www.baywindfarm.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13953)

[Remali]

I've gotten out of a lease before, I had a landlord like that once, never fixed anything and the place was not very safe after awhile, I told them I was moving out and that was that. I really think that is more than enough cause for you to get out of your lease.

Call an attorney, or maybe there is a state organization that offers assistance/advice to renters? Here in Wisconsin we have the Tennant Resource Center, maybe Florida has something similar, and you can talk to them and find out the best route to go with this.

[dame_wolf]

I spent a North Idaho winter with a hole in my roof where a tree fell on it. Good luck girl!

[Remali]

Oh brrrrr..... that must have been nasty and cold DW!!

[Horseaholic]

It's on the second floor, but it's a full length sliding glass door that is completely shattered... Since before Christmas.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/misfitnine/window004.jpg

What could have possibly happened? - Baywind Farm Horse Forum (http://www.baywindfarm.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13953)



exactly that simply has a tarp put up over it. Plenty of thieves enter through second floor windows.

[Horseaholic]

broke my lease today. The window has still not been repaired and we are going on 3 weeks and record lows for Florida.

went into the leasing office today...spoke my case and she said that's fine and she understands! WOOOO now scrambling to get into that property I posted a while back.

[lovesfortune]

great news. hope it all works out! and fast!

[WashingtonBay]

Woo hoo! The funky one on both sides of the aisle? Or another one?

[Horseaholic]

the funky one :D

[WashingtonBay]

I LOVE the funky one :D

[vicklynn]

LOL...I loved the funky one too!! Good luck!!

[lovesfortune]

just curious, did your landlord say anything about why it's taken so long for the window to be fixed??

[miatapony]

wow im kind of wondering the same thing .. did they want you to leave or something ??? sounds kind of fishy ?????? make sure you are in the right and you get the deposit back....

[Gypsy Rose]

Great news! Hope everything works out for you!

[Horseaholic]

It sounds terrible (but I'm a young person too ) but there maintenance is a bunch of young adults who don't want to work. Its a buddy meeting all day for them to mess around n not get work done. Everyone has problems w them fixing stuff there. They just don't want to work. Maintenance was in the office with us and the manager got on to him. She had been away apparently and thought the window was taken care of....the maintenance guy said openly in front of me that the place who had the glass available wanted to come and measure to be sure n wanted 85 dollars for that so he told them no because he thought it was too much money. The manager said "I don't care! Get the window fixed. No more excuses." She was very nice and understanding. Professional and apologetic.

[lovesfortune]

so any word on the new place?

[AUEquine]

It sounds terrible (but I'm a young person too ) but there maintenance is a bunch of young adults who don't want to work. Its a buddy meeting all day for them to mess around n not get work done. Everyone has problems w them fixing stuff there. They just don't want to work. Maintenance was in the office with us and the manager got on to him. She had been away apparently and thought the window was taken care of....the maintenance guy said openly in front of me that the place who had the glass available wanted to come and measure to be sure n wanted 85 dollars for that so he told them no because he thought it was too much money. The manager said "I don't care! Get the window fixed. No more excuses." She was very nice and understanding. Professional and apologetic.

Sounds like the worthless jokes that did the rebuild on my current trailer. Don't want to do nothing! You'd think in this economy people'd be working their butts off to keep their jobs. But the problem is bosses are too nice, or too lazy themselves. If people won't work because they want to and have a good work ethic, then make them work out of fear.
I was kind of luckly in all my rentals. Since this is a college town, most of the renters everywhere are college students. So all the realty companys and managers know that they have momma's and daddy's to deal with if they don't get stuff done. And you never know which one of those daddy's or momma's is a lawyer! All my stuff was always fixed quick.

[outriding01]

Except at Creekside :doh:. Mary-elsye and I had a hole in our lower floor ceiling from Spring Break until we moved out... Something leaked, they cut the ceiling out and left it. But in general yeah, lol. My place here in Gainesville is awesome. They're here either the day you call or the next morning. And if they're not for some reason, a second call gets them out that hour. And if they fix something and it breaks again, they just replace the whole thing (like my water heater...)
Can't wait to see how the new place turns out! Give me a call if you need anything.