Can we legally break our lease?

[mozplay]

Hello,

I have been reading through the forums and am hoping for some help here. We agreed to rent a townhouse in a complex in Baltimore, MD. Unfortunately, the living conditions are not what we expected and we would really like to move. In order to do so, we would have to break the lease.

The reasons we would like to move are:
- the neighbours are ridiculously noisy - I don't think that we sleep through the night more than 2 times in any given week.
- one neighbour actually threatened us - we reported this to the property management and their only response was that they would put it on file and perhaps not renew their rental agreement when it came up for review.
- the grounds are not maintained: garbage is allowed to sit for days at a time and as a dog owner, I fear for her what with all the broken glass, chicken bones and general garbage. This is compounded by the fact that the property has ticks!!!
- it takes the rental managment FOREVER to get things fixed. I'm still waiting for repairs that were supposed to have happened over a month ago!
- the feral cats in the neighbourhood have attacked our dog on more than one occassion - yes.. I swear it's the truth!
- there is quite a bit of suspected drug activity (selling drugs) on the premises. Unfortunately, we have no way of proving this other than heresay (smelling the pot off the balconys won't count, I'm assuming)

Now, when we signed the lease we were told we would get a copy. That never happened. When we asked for a copy - they copied the first page and gave that to us. As of this point, we have never recieved a copy of the lease, however, working off of memory only, I don't believe that there was a clause which would allow us to break the lease with a penalty. Neither do we expect that they would be reasonable.

Is there any way to get out of a lease legally? I have never broken a lease before in all my years of renting, but conditions here seriously leave much to be desired.

If you can help - I'd appreciate it.

Mo

 

[JETX]

Is there any way to get out of a lease legally?

Yep. Here is all you have to do:
1) Negotiate with the landlord for an early termination to your lease obligation, or
2) Get the landlords permission to find an acceptable replacement, or
3) Get a court to order a termination of your lease obligation, or

 

[mozplay]

Thanks for your advice, unfortunately #2 is out of the question as I honestly can't encourage anyone else to live here.

However, with the conditions I described, do you think they would be good enough reasons (legally) to either seek an agreement with the property managment or if this is not doable, go to court with?

Mo

 

[Cvillecpm]

OP....."do you think they would be good enough reasons (legally) to either seek an agreement with the property managment or if this is not doable, go to court with?"

Probably no......the conditions on the exterior don't effect the interior AND that would be what the judge is concerned with. As for "slow repairs"....depending on what they actually are and if they are warrented, several weeks is not uncommon.

Call the police on the druggies and noise, call animal control on the cats, and next time there is a warm day, pick up the trash.

When you pay your May rent, write a letter to mgmt - send it USPS Delivery Confirmation receipt - and ask for a full copy of your lease and send a copy to the MD attorney general's office - check their address on the state AG's website.

THEN.....ask mgmt to let you out of your lease.