• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Breaking a Lease Nevada

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

pfeinauer

Member
What is the name of your state? Nevada

Hello all,

I just had a few questions about breaking a lease in Nevada. I will ask those first, then post our story with details for any additional info that may be needed.

Question 1:
My wife and I signed a document stating we were breaking our lease and vacating our apartment on approximately June 18th 2018, giving a 30 day notice as well as notifying them of our new address, as of we believe was July 18th. We do not have a copy of this. On July 11th 2018, we turned in our keys to our landlord and did a final walkthrough with them, as well as signed a "move-out condition" document. Now without seeing the 30 day notice document we signed, would we need to do anything else "officially" to break our lease and give notice, other than turning in our keys and signing that particular document?

Question 2:
If we have "officially" given notice, when does the deposit disposition time frame start? Is it 30 days from our 30 day notice, or 30 days after we have turned in our keys? The landlord was adamant about not being able to rent out the apartment and the lease being over until we turned in our keys. The 30 days would be August 17th from the date of notice, or August 10th, from the date of turning in the keys.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be given as to the questions above.

-Pat


Details about the apartments and breaking the lease:

We moved into some apartments in Mesquite, NV in the middle of April 2018. We signed a 6 month lease. We paid partial 1st month as well as deposits required. The temperature in Mesquite, since it's in the desert, started increasing quickly, and was steady in the low to mid 100s, from about the middle of May until we left in June. The apartment's air conditioning worked fine, but as you all know, you really need to keep your windows up in your apartment to keep it cool and habitable inside.
Smoking marijuana is now legal in Nevada, including in private residences. As part of our lease, we had to sign a no smoking clause, as well as no drug use, including marijuana even if it is now legal.
The problem started in which quite a few tenants would smoke cigarettes inside their apartments, and due to the poor construction nature of our apartment, it ALWAYS smelled like cigarette smoke inside our apartment, including some days, it smelled and made us cough like someone was smoking in the same room as we were. The big problem however was our next door neighbor would smoke marijuana in his apartment, and when that would happen, the pot smoke smell was so bad inside our apartment it would make us sick to our stomach and we would need to leave. Now, remember the temperature outside was over 100 degrees, so airing out the house was not an option, unless we wanted the temperature in the house to rise very quickly.
We complained to the apartment manager 3-4 times. She always would state she checked it out immediately, and even brought her dog to smell around his apartment. Each time she stated she found nothing and smelled nothing. This was virtually impossible, because the last time this happened with the pot smoke, I went over to our neighbor and knocked on his door. He came outside with a billow of pot smoke (could smell it where I stood coming from inside his apartment), as well as smelling it on his breath. He stated he was not smoking pot at all, but sometimes the downstairs neighbors would smoke cigarettes and he could smell that from time to time.

The very next day we found a different place to live (this was approximately June 18th 2018), went and notified our apartment manager. She said it was an unlawful way to end the lease, but she would try to find tenants, and if she did, she would just move them in, and we wouldn't be on the hook for paying out the rest of the lease. (this is Nevada law by the way). She then wanted us to turn in our keys before she could find tenants but still wanted us to pay rent until she did find tenants. We didn't feel comfortable with this because of her attitude and demeanor before with her, so she had us sign a document stating we were moving out on a certain day (gave 30 days notice) on July 18th.

We moved out immediately but kept the keys, and moved into our new apartment. We then proceeded to clean, and take care of the old apartment in Mesquite, and had a "move-out" walk through on July 11th 2018. At this time we gave our manager the keys to the apartment, and filled out the move-out checklist. I actually video taped it, just to capture the audio of the entire walk through but did not record any pictures of her (just kept the phone pointed at the ground) but did take pictures of a small crack/hole in a closet door she stated was an issue.

We then went to see a lawyer. He stated she would have to give us a letter of deposit disposition before a 30 day period elapsed (NRS 118A.242) but we aren't sure exactly when that time frame started. The apartments have an online portal, in which you could pay your rent online, they would assign it as being due on the 1st of the month, as well as you can submit maintenance requests and send messages, etc. We paid our rent for all of July through July 31st, but did not pay August as of yet. As of August 9th, there was no amount due on the online portal, so we were expecting the deposit disposition letter by mail. However as of today (August 11th), they have assigned an amount due for the August rent. Per the civil code, they either hand the deposit disposition letter to us at their office, or they mail it to our address, not assign an amount due in their resident internet portal. Over the weekend, I think, we're going to visit our old apartment, knock on the door, and see if it has been rented.

So, as of now, I'm not exactly sure how to proceed, because of the timeline and the unorthodox way this landlord has dealt with this breaking of the lease. I really believe she just doesn't like dealing with confrontation, hence not taking care of a drug using tenant causing other tenants in your apartment building to leave. I don't even know if she understands the law completely to even know about the disposition letter, so I really don't want to ask her questions or talk with her to ask her whats next. My concern is that I never wrote a letter, or sent an email as to giving our 30 day notice. The only thing we did was sign that particular document.

We are aware if we do not receive that deposit disposition in a timely fashion, we would need to sue the landlord to either receive our deposits back, or end this situation. I'm just concerned the landlord is uneducated in this matter, and her negligence will cause this to be drawn out for quite a while.
 


adjusterjack

Senior Member
My wife and I signed a document stating we were breaking our lease and vacating our apartment on approximately June 18th 2018, giving a 30 day notice as well as notifying them of our new address, as of we believe was July 18th. We do not have a copy of this.
Doesn't matter what you wrote or didn't write. You breached your contract. You're the bad guy. There's going to be financial consequences. That doesn't change by giving somebody notice that you are going to do bad.

would we need to do anything else "officially" to break our lease and give notice, other than turning in our keys and signing that particular document?
No, silly, a breach of contract doesn't need you to do anything except breach the contract, which you have already done.

If we have "officially" given notice, when does the deposit disposition time frame start? Is it 30 days from our 30 day notice, or 30 days after we have turned in our keys? The landlord was adamant about not being able to rent out the apartment and the lease being over until we turned in our keys. The 30 days would be August 17th from the date of notice, or August 10th, from the date of turning in the keys.
The clock starts at termination of tenancy which is when you surrender the rental and turn in the keys.

Nevada Statute 118a.242
4. Upon termination of the tenancy by either party for any reason, the landlord may claim of the security or surety bond, or a combination thereof, only such amounts as are reasonably necessary to remedy any default of the tenant in the payment of rent, to repair damages to the premises caused by the tenant other than normal wear and to pay the reasonable costs of cleaning the premises. The landlord shall provide the tenant with an itemized written accounting of the disposition of the security or surety bond, or a combination thereof, and return any remaining portion of the security to the tenant no later than 30 days after the termination of the tenancy by handing it to the tenant personally at the place where the rent is paid, or by mailing it to the tenant at the tenant’s present address or, if that address is unknown, at the tenant’s last known address.
https://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/2017/chapter-118a/statute-118a.242/

I'm not going to read the rest of your post because it's irrelevant. If you moved out on July 18, 30 days is August 17 so you have to wait until then to see if she fails to comply with the statute. If she fails to comply with the statute you can sue her in small claims court and seek the remedies addressed in 118a.242.

However, if she does comply with the statute and sends you the itemization you could still lose all or part of your deposit depending on how long it takes her to re-rent.

She is obliged by statute to mitigate.

118.175 If a tenant of real property abandons the property, the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. If the landlord rents the property for a term beginning before the expiration of the rental agreement pursuant to its terms or if, despite the landlord’s reasonable efforts, the landlord is unable to rent the property before the rental agreement is otherwise terminated, the former tenant is liable for any actual damages of the landlord which may result from the abandonment. If the landlord fails to make reasonable efforts to rent the property at a fair rental, the former tenant is liable for any actual damages of the landlord occurring before the landlord had reason to believe that the property was abandoned. If the tenancy is from month to month or week to week, the term of the rental agreement for this purpose is deemed to be a month or a week, as the case may be.
https://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/2017/chapter-118/statute-118.175/

You'll just have to wait and see.
 

pfeinauer

Member
Thank you Adjusterjack for parts of your comments. Some of it did sound like trolling, whereas others did sound a bit more serious.

I would still be interested in someone who gets a little less emotional and does read our comments and responds directly to the facts. Adjusterjack first stated "The clock starts at termination of tenancy which is when you surrender the rental and turn in the keys. " which would have been July 11th, and the 30 days was over yesterday August 10th, without the letter of disposition.
However, he then said that he is not going to read the rest of the post because it's irrelevant, but if we moved out on the 18th the 30 days is August 17th. So due to his contradiction of dates, we'd still like some clarification on what the exact date is. Does the clock for the disposition letter start on July 11th when the keys were turned in, or on July 17th which was our 30 day of our notice to vacate?

My point was about signing the document and breaching the contract was, not if we breached the contract, however did we officially give the landlord notice, because she is still stating we owe rent, even though we signed a notice to vacate, as well as gave her our keys to the apartment. This is why I absolutely wanted to make sure she understands that we are no longer living there and breaking the lease.

Any clarification would be helpful, thank you!

-Pat
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
it is very fair for a landlord to argue that keys = possession so time clock can start when LL began to have full control of the empty unit.
 

adjusterjack

Senior Member
Fair enough. I should have read the rest of your post because I missed that you moved out and returned the keys on July 11 but paid the rent through July 31.

It was unfortunate that you did that because an argument can be made that you continued to rent the place until July 31, had rights to occupy the rental (and were not obligated to vacate and turn in the keys), and were not in breach until July 31 which is the actual expiration of your tenancy because it is the termination of the period that you paid for.

That means that the landlord might have until August 30 to comply with the statute and might not be obliged to mitigate until then.

At any rate, yes, it would be a good idea to go back and see if the place has been re-rented. If it has been the LL is still entitled to wait until the end of August.
 

pfeinauer

Member
Yes, it appears this may be a bit more muddy then previously thought as to this particular timeline. We were listening to her and following her directions, which in hindsight, we should not have been doing at all, and should have sought out legal advice immediately.

Yes, we broke the lease and breached a contract, but that in and of itself is not illegal. What the landlord is now trying to do is illegal, and we are trying to protect ourselves by making sure she is following the law on how to follow up on this matter. I hope you can see that by my description, she is dishonest and unethical. What's actually happening is she is wanting us to continue paying rent even after we have broken the lease, and gave her the keys. That's not the way it works, we should be receiving an itemized letter of disposition of the security deposit along with missed rental payments. Hence my questions on when that period actually begins. In Nevada, the landlord must do their due diligence and try to rent out the property, and then if it is rented before our lease ends, we do not pay for that time. She isn't even trying to rent it out. It has had a waiting list for years, and now all of a sudden, there has been one vacancy since we left, our apartment that we rented. Strange don't you think?

Thanks for the comments, after this is all done, if there is interest in what happened, I'll post the results.
 

pfeinauer

Member
Just an update to this and to answer my questions I had above:

We should have kept a copy of the 30 day notice to vacate. We did not. We trusted the landlord that this would be a smooth transaction, and it wasn't. My advice for next time is to get a copy of the notice. And yes, the notice to vacate is really the only thing you need to have. The rental agreements I've seen just require a tenant to put something in writing. Be sure you keep this!

Also, even our lawyer didn't know what the exact date was that the letter of dispostion period began. He just suggested to wait for the latter date (the 18th) as it was only 7 days. It wasn't a large amount of money we're talking about, so the extra week was fine with us.

-------------
The landlord sent us the letter of disposition finally and we received it after the 30 day waiting period (it was about august 25th or so). However, we visited a local lawyer that actually defends landlords, and luckily we got him first to help us out with this situation.
He recommended we should give them a settlement, and offer to pay through August (our lease would officially terminate in October). The problem with this entire situation was it was appearing the landlord was not being responsible. It was not legal for them to continue asking for rent after we have given the notice to vacate, even if we broke the lease. The legal way to handle this issue from the landlord's side was to prepare the letter of disposition with any and all charges (including future rent) all the way through October. The settlement letter was going to "end" the ongoing carelessness. If we wouldn't have pushed the issue, it would appear the landlord would just keep asking for rent, even after we had turned in our keys, and are not even staying in the apartment. This is not how this works in Nevada. (https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-118A.html)

The letter of disposition that they gave to us (they did find a tenant) was actually cheaper than this, so we paid the amount on the dispostion letter, and are finished.

Just an update to tenants out there, landlord and tenant issues are very difficult to get through. There are a lot of bad landlords out there, as well as tenants. Our lawyer, and a few friends of mine (who are landlords) were actually appalled at how this whole entire process went, and EVERY one of them stated they would have just offered to break our lease because of the drug use they couldn't deal with. My advice to everyone is to always try to do the right thing, but if you do need to fight for your rights, don't let ANYONE bully you into not doing so. These forums are good, I just wished the original person that replied would have read my entire post, and it did seem like they were a little emotional about what was going on (see above about bad tenants). A few other posts I have read, have some landlord trolls also. I'd personally recommend to the forum administrators, try to keep these posts to a minimum. Keep your emotions out of the situation, and just deal with this as it is a business transaction.
Good luck all!
 
Last edited:

adjusterjack

Senior Member
It was not legal for them to continue asking for rent after we have given the notice to vacate, even if we broke the lease.
You're wrong there.

There is NOTHING "illegal" about ASKING.

There was nothing to compel you to pay outside of a ruling by a court of law so no harm, no foul.

The letter of disposition that they gave to us (they did find a tenant) was actually cheaper than this, so we paid the amount on the dispostion letter, and are finished.
Good.

You'll be wiser going into your next rental.

Advice for the future, and not just for landlord tenant matters:

Trust no one.
Get and put everything in writing.
Insist on duplicates of anything you sign before you sign it and read it and understand it before you sign.
Keep copies of documents forever. Easy enough to get them on to your computer and your backup drive.

For landlord tenant matters, study your statutes for your rights, obligations, and remedies. Follow instructions to the letter.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top