1
Asked 553 days ago
I just signed a lease and afterwards found out that the place has had bed bugs recently. There are other places to move, so I would like to get my 1st month and deposit back to move somewhere else. The lease is 10 days old.
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4 Total Answers
Answer by trailhound7667 on May 31, 2008 at 6:10PM
I doubt you can break the lease if they are trying to fix the problem, but if the apartment is uninhabitable you may be able to negotiate a way out. Perhaps there is another open unit in the complex?
Comment by anotherusername1 on Aug 16, 2008 at 8:09AM
Disinformation is a constant threat on a site like this. You ARE responsible for the full term of the lease, not just "30 days from key turn in".
To help you understand this, picture this scenario: A military officer owns a lovely home in a nice area. He gets orders to the Middle East on a two year assignment. Selling his home is not an option because he would have to pay an extra $45,000 to the bank at closing due to the housing slump. Money he doesn't have. He decides to rent. For two months he looks for just the right renter. He finds a great family with solid income, long local job history, and excellent credit; he interviews them to insure they will love and care for his home in his absence, as well as reliably provide the much-needed cash to help him cover his mortgage, property taxes and insurance.
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Comment by anotherusername1 on Aug 16, 2008 at 8:09AM Disinformation is a constant threat on a site like this. You ARE responsible for the full term of the lease, not just "30 days from key turn in".
To help you understand this, picture this scenario: A military officer owns a lovely home in a nice area. He gets orders to the Middle East on a two year assignment. Selling his home is not an option because he would have to pay an extra $45,000 to the bank at closing due to the housing slump. Money he doesn't have. He decides to rent. For two months he looks for just the right renter. He finds a great family with solid income, long local job history, and excellent credit; he interviews them to insure they will love and care for his home in his absence, as well as reliably provide the much-needed cash to help him cover his mortgage, property taxes and insurance.
Answer by tarne on Jul 10, 2008 at 9:55AM
Not really unless you can prove the apartment is uninhabitable and you can prove negligance on the apartments side. Tough to do in a lot of situations and the landlord is generally given 30 days to remedy any non-emergency problems. But if you want to break your lease, here is what you can expect.
Upon breaking a lease a property can only charge you a max of 30 days rent from the moment you turn your keys in. This amount can be lowered if they rent the apartment before the end of the 30 day period. They are not allowed to collect double rent on an apartment. However, if you were given any concessions for signing and completing a lease term you could be back charged for non-completion. Be sure to read your lease for any special terms you may have agreed to. This does not include any charges for cleaning, painting etc,.
Upon breaking a lease a property can only charge you a max of 30 days rent from the moment you turn your keys in. This amount can be lowered if they rent the apartment before the end of the 30 day period. They are not allowed to collect double rent on an apartment. However, if you were given any concessions for signing and completing a lease term you could be back charged for non-completion. Be sure to read your lease for any special terms you may have agreed to. This does not include any charges for cleaning, painting etc,.
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Answer by micaiah on Jul 10, 2008 at 10:48AM
Hi,
Thank you everyone for your responses. As I had not yet moved in. I simple sent a letter stating my case and informed them that their representative stated that they had no intention of fixing this unit or any other unit in the building. The 2 towers all 14 floors did not have screens on the windows. A lawyer consulted me saying that without window screens or any intention of fixing the issue that I could legally break the lease.
Then I went to my bank and asked them to reverse the deposit I had given them. My bank did this without hesitation.
After a few weeks the management company sent me an invoice. They are stating that I owe them about half a month's rent for the time the unit was unoccupied. I plan to pay them this amount, as it is far cheaper than paying an entire year's rent with them.
Comment by tarne on Jul 10, 2008 at 11:07AM
You may be able to get out of the half months rent owed. Yet it kind of seems the manager is being bit fair and honest, they probabaly rented the apartment 2 weeks later and are not charging double rent on it. The best thing to do is to write a letter to the management company, preferrably the area supervisor. Your not going to get anywhere with the manager because they wont have the authority to do anything.
Be nice, factual, and informative in the letter. Address your concerns about the bed bugs and screens and anything else without exagerating. Acknowledge that you are willing to pay an agreeable amount but you would like to further discuss the amount owed and see what happens.
Thank you everyone for your responses. As I had not yet moved in. I simple sent a letter stating my case and informed them that their representative stated that they had no intention of fixing this unit or any other unit in the building. The 2 towers all 14 floors did not have screens on the windows. A lawyer consulted me saying that without window screens or any intention of fixing the issue that I could legally break the lease.
Then I went to my bank and asked them to reverse the deposit I had given them. My bank did this without hesitation.
After a few weeks the management company sent me an invoice. They are stating that I owe them about half a month's rent for the time the unit was unoccupied. I plan to pay them this amount, as it is far cheaper than paying an entire year's rent with them.
Comments must adhere to our Terms of Use. To create links, just type the address with no HTML code. You can edit your comment at any time.
Comment by tarne on Jul 10, 2008 at 11:07AM You may be able to get out of the half months rent owed. Yet it kind of seems the manager is being bit fair and honest, they probabaly rented the apartment 2 weeks later and are not charging double rent on it. The best thing to do is to write a letter to the management company, preferrably the area supervisor. Your not going to get anywhere with the manager because they wont have the authority to do anything.
Be nice, factual, and informative in the letter. Address your concerns about the bed bugs and screens and anything else without exagerating. Acknowledge that you are willing to pay an agreeable amount but you would like to further discuss the amount owed and see what happens.
Answer by jacquelynn676v on Sep 21, 2008 at 11:35PM
According to the law I think you are entitle to terminate you lease within the 14 days. Check the apartment policy.
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