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On Intent and the Law

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billfro

Guest
I have a question regarding the role intent plays in interpretation of laws. Unfortunately, a somewhat lengthy description is necessary.

I had a 3-bdrm apartment in Seattle, WA. In May of this year, we decided to move into a house. The lease on the apt. ends August 31, but the lease on the house began June 1. Our apartment managers found us sublessors for the apartment and we subsequently signed the lease for the house. Shortly thereafter, the sublessors accepted a $600-deposit loss to go elsewhere. So, we'd just signed a new lease and our sublessors for the apartment backed out, leaving us responsible for that rent as well (they hadn't moved in yet).

We moved out of the apartment anyway, in early June, having paid all of June's rent there. Two weeks after, we found out that our apartment managers changed the locks to our apartment, effectively locking us out (even though we weren't living there). According to local law, any tenant "so removed or excluded...may recover possession of the property OR terminate the rental agreement."

So, we legally have the right to terminate our rental agreement. However, we have since found out that our apartment managers (who ARE trustworthy) changed the locks in order to make the apartment immediately ready for renting, as they have been continually trying to find other tenants to fill our spot. Essentially, they changed the locks (and broke the contract) in our best interest.

As of now, we have paid for the entirety of the rental agreement at the apartment (through August 31) and are paying for rent on our new house. My question, then, is: Can we use the law to get out of our contract, even though the intent of our apartment managers was to help us? Put another way, if we decide to take a legal route and take the matter to court, will a judge look only at the wording of the law and rule in our favor, or will he/she take into consideration the INTENT of the illegal act and thus rule in favor of the landlords?

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David Rodriguez
 



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