breaking lease need advice

[Courty495]

My boyfriend and I are buying a home and planned on breaking my year lease in Pennsylvania. I gave my landlord 2 months notice and they only require one month notice. I am a good tenant and always pay my rent on time. There are many clauses in the lease that are not enforced and I have noticed this for the entire time I have lived at this address. The landlords live in a neighboring town and do not have an office on the premisis, therefore are not around the townhouses on a daily basis. My next-door neighbor often breaks the clauses stated in the lease. For instance, there are people living in the townhouse that are not covered by the lease, he uses the townhouse for his business, he has parties that vandalize other tenants properties, and the list goes on. I have conversed with other tenanants and they have, on more than one occasion, made our landlord aware of the problems and still no action is taken. This all happened after I notified them that I ws going to break my lease.I am angry because my neighbor's friends (he claims not to have been there at the time) had a party where there was drinking involved and at around 4am someone leaving the party hit my car with their car causing $800 worth of damage. I did not see the car but someone else did but no ID could be attained. Because the tenant was not there he could not give me a description of the vehicle, etc. I notified the police and my insurance co. NOW WHAT?? Do I have any write to press charges, get my security deposit back, have the right to break my lease without paying the next 6 months rent?? I need advice for how to take action.

 

[HomeGuru]

Read the provisions in your lease.

 

[Courty495]

I have read the lease and it really only specifies that I may not get my security deposit back for breaking my lease. My landlord has hinted that I might have to pay out the rest of my lease, but has not given me a definite answer. I am angry because they have not held up their end of the deal by enforcing the stipulations that they put in the lease. If they try to make me pay out the lease can I use their negligence as leverage?

 

[LL]

No, they have nothing to do with your leaving before the end of your lease.

 

[Courty495]

Not even if my property was damaged due to their neglegence?
What if the lease does not specify that I have to pay out the end of my lease if I break the lease agreement? Is that a right that Pennsylvania land lords have, to make you pay that is.

 

[LL]

Your bitterness is showing that you cannot do whatever you want.

You signed a contract, which probably says something like, "(you) shall pay the sum of XXXX.XX on the first of every month during the term of this lease". It's a contract, right. You got your part of the contract you got to live there, your rent couldn't be raised, etc. Now its time for the other side of the contract obligation, namely yours.

Go and talk with your landlord and see what you can work out. He has some kind of obligation to try to find a replacement tenant, if he can, to reduce your loss. Of course, you will have to pay for all of his expenses in doing so, including his time. But, if there is enough time left on your lease, it may be worthwhile.

Don't be such a spoiled brat. Keeping your word and fulfilling a contract is part of being an adult.

 

[lauracam]

I successfully broke a lease.

My first apartment was cute and in an old area of town. Too bad I didn't talk to the tenants before I moved in.

The building I lived in had 4 apartments in it, and the boy and his mother living on the top opposite side from me dealt drugs. The building was being vandalized (among other things) and I found out the landlord told the drug dealing kid I SAW him commit vandalism to pressure him to confess. I was the only single person in that building living alone.

After the landlord expelled his act of kindness, I received a letter from the drug dealer's mother. It was shoved under my door, exclamating my accusations were dead wrong.

I filled out an application for another apartment complex clear across town, so I could move immediately when the lease ended. Then the lady downstairs (who's on disability and stays home during the day) called the police on the drug dealers. She told me the narcotics officer gave her the impression he was going to raid the place.

I left that building that weekend and never went back. The ladies at the other apartment complex offered to take me in early.

The raid happened during the day, mid July 1999. Luckily I wasn't there to experience it.

My landlord breeched the "habitability clause." Essentially its where everyone is supposed to conduct their behavior in a way that makes the apartments a safe place to live. The landlord knew about the drug dealing so he was violating his own lease.

A lawyer friend of mind wrote him a letter, telling him why I was leaving. The slumlord countered with a letter from his lawyer. My lawyer wrote an additional letter and faxed a copy of the letter I received from the drug dealer's mother. We never heard from him again, and there are no negative reports against my credit.

Had I lost in the end, he could have taken me to small claims court and gotten about $1,500 in remaining rent and possible other damages. If I had to have paid him, it still would have been worth getting out of there.

Talk to a couple of attorneys in your area who offer free consultations and bring a copy of your lease with you. They can give you a few ideas on how to proceed.

 

[LL]

These tenants are breaking their lease in order to buy a home, not because of anything going on in the neighboring townhouses. There are looking for reasons not to have to pay the remaining rent, or even deal with the issue of their lease.

Aside from the lack of ethics on their part, I do not believe that legal action based on the habitability clause would succeed, if the landlord brought into court information about their buying a home at precisely this time. I think that they should face their problem honestly and sincerely, and deal with their lease in the way that the law expects them to, namely give notice and cooperate with the landlord to get the apartment re-rented to cover the rental loss.

I don't doubt that attorneys can be found to write any kind of letter.

I can share my own experience with you. I had a tenant once
who gave notice,

sent a letter from a lawyer that this is wrong and that is wrong, which I knew to be untrue, she is not paying last month's rent, take it from the security deposit, there will be no more rent, thats the end of it,

I found out from a neighbor that she had bought a condo,

I wrote back to the lawyer pointing this out, and that he (the lawyer) is as crazy as mary hartman,

I got the rent by return mail.

In return, I re-rented the apartment on her behalf.

 

[lauracam]

From the original letter I caught her saying, "My next-door neighbor often breaks the clauses stated in the lease. " And she went on to say due to one of her neighbor's parties, her car was damaged.

I don't advocate breaking a lease unless it's a dire emergency, and in my case, I believe it was. All I'm saying is, if she can prove through pictures and letters as I did of her neighbor's behavior, she may be able to leave.

My ex-landlord didn't take me to small claims court, because I'm a packrat (thank God) and kept every piece of evidence I had against him, not giving him a leg to stand on.

One day I'm going to have to scan in a copy of the psychotic letter and post it on my web site. It still makes me chuckle.

Laura

 

[LL]

This tenant is leaving anyway, isn't she, and for a reason unrelated to her car being damaged or other neighbors.
She just wants to avoid her responsibility under the lease.

Do you think that she should be allowed to leave without any responsibility of the lease, in order to move into her new house? She is not wanting to move because the apartment is uninhabitable.

 

[lauracam]

LL,

I'm not arguing with you, and I don't think you're wrong. However it would be nice, in a perfect world, if both tenant and landlord did their part to make life enjoyable for all involved.

If the troublesome neighbor was a concern, Courty495 should have documented her case and taken care of it.

Although I don't think she should be able to break her lease and leave the landlord high and dry, it would be nice to have more leniant lease laws. In my apartment, if I want to leave before my lease ends, I lose my deposit and pay a month up front. That's it. No bad renter's reference or credit report on behalf of the apartment complex owners.

If I ever rent again, I will check on their policy concerning the above. I won't settle for less next time.

Laura