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can I get out of my lease agreement ?

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Dan10

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

We've been living at our rental house to two months. We signed a six-month lease.

Our neighbors next door play their music at a volume that is intolerable. I have asked them nicely to turn down their music serveral times and it finally escallated into me having to call the police, which only made the matter worse. I've called the police three times total and the problem hasn't stopped. We have wittnessed the owner of the house walking around our neighborhood telling everybody that I am a dead beat who sit in my house all day long and if I "had a job" I wouldn't have time to call the police, essentially causing people in the neighborhood to become our enemies, with one or two (maybe) exceptions.

They have a dog which roams freely and has messed in our front yard several times which I had to clean up. I also asked them to stop the dog from messing in our yard. They don't do anything about the dog. It just roams freely and pees and does whatever it wants. Calling animal control would make the matter more worse than it is already.

They also throw cigarette butts into our flower bed on the side of our house, where the drive way is.

They have dogs in their backyard that are noisy a lot of the time and drives us crazy.

It has come to my attention that the people next door are probably affiliated with gangsters, judging from the way they dress and the types of guests that come over to their house.

Today, I was trying to fix up a spot in my window where I can record one the the loud cars playing their music so I can have some evidence of the noise, and one of the guys standing out there saw me and said, "What the F*** you looking at?" That guy was whering red and looked like he had just gotten out of prison not too long ago.

My wife and I are now afraid for our lives and my families safety, given the various circunstances and have left our house today to stay at my mom's. We plan to go back Monday morning a get our stuff out of the house and drop off the keys at the property management. I have told the property management about the problem and the only thing they seem to be concerned about is collecting for the remaining four months on the lease, although I have issued at statement to the property owner asking to be released from the lease, given the circumstances. Our house is not safe. These people do what ever they want if anybody has a problem with it all h*** breaks loose. While I waited for the police the last time I called them, I heard the oldest woman who is a grand mother, refer to my wife as a "b*tch" when my wife was in the house, and the owner of the house tell his grand children that I am a "f***ing prick". Generally speaking, they seem to have no moral code what so ever.

I have police reports, a video of the dog in our yard, I submitted a statement to the City Hall in the town we live, I have the testimonly of my neighobors across the street and another neighbor who lives behind me, who both say that our next door neighbors have been a problem for a very long time, specifically the music. In fact, the tenants who lived in our house previously abandoned the house, according to one of our neighbors because of the continuous loud unresolved music.

Could I win if they took me to court and sue us for the remainder of the lease money ?
 


Proserpina

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

We've been living at our rental house to two months. We signed a six-month lease.

Our neighbors next door play their music at a volume that is intolerable. I have asked them nicely to turn down their music serveral times and it finally escallated into me having to call the police, which only made the matter worse. I've called the police three times total and the problem hasn't stopped. We have wittnessed the owner of the house walking around our neighborhood telling everybody that I am a dead beat who sit in my house all day long and if I "had a job" I wouldn't have time to call the police, essentially causing people in the neighborhood to become our enemies, with one or two (maybe) exceptions.

They have a dog which roams freely and has messed in our front yard several times which I had to clean up. I also asked them to stop the dog from messing in our yard. They don't do anything about the dog. It just roams freely and pees and does whatever it wants. Calling animal control would make the matter more worse than it is already.

They also throw cigarette butts into our flower bed on the side of our house, where the drive way is.

They have dogs in their backyard that are noisy a lot of the time and drives us crazy.

It has come to my attention that the people next door are probably affiliated with gangsters, judging from the way they dress and the types of guests that come over to their house.

Today, I was trying to fix up a spot in my window where I can record one the the loud cars playing their music so I can have some evidence of the noise, and one of the guys standing out there saw me and said, "What the F*** you looking at?" That guy was whering red and looked like he had just gotten out of prison not too long ago.

My wife and I are now afraid for our lives and my families safety, given the various circunstances and have left our house today to stay at my mom's. We plan to go back Monday morning a get our stuff out of the house and drop off the keys at the property management. I have told the property management about the problem and the only thing they seem to be concerned about is collecting for the remaining four months on the lease, although I have issued at statement to the property owner asking to be released from the lease, given the circumstances. Our house is not safe. These people do what ever they want if anybody has a problem with it all h*** breaks loose. While I waited for the police the last time I called them, I heard the oldest woman who is a grand mother, refer to my wife as a "b*tch" when my wife was in the house, and the owner of the house tell his grand children that I am a "f***ing prick". Generally speaking, they seem to have no moral code what so ever.

I have police reports, a video of the dog in our yard, I submitted a statement to the City Hall in the town we live, I have the testimonly of my neighobors across the street and another neighbor who lives behind me, who both say that our next door neighbors have been a problem for a very long time, specifically the music. In fact, the tenants who lived in our house previously abandoned the house, according to one of our neighbors because of the continuous loud unresolved music.

Could I win if they took me to court and sue us for the remainder of the lease money ?

Your landlord/s would win.
 

sandyclaus

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

We've been living at our rental house to two months. We signed a six-month lease.

Our neighbors next door play their music at a volume that is intolerable. I have asked them nicely to turn down their music serveral times and it finally escallated into me having to call the police, which only made the matter worse. I've called the police three times total and the problem hasn't stopped. We have wittnessed the owner of the house walking around our neighborhood telling everybody that I am a dead beat who sit in my house all day long and if I "had a job" I wouldn't have time to call the police, essentially causing people in the neighborhood to become our enemies, with one or two (maybe) exceptions.

They have a dog which roams freely and has messed in our front yard several times which I had to clean up. I also asked them to stop the dog from messing in our yard. They don't do anything about the dog. It just roams freely and pees and does whatever it wants. Calling animal control would make the matter more worse than it is already.

They also throw cigarette butts into our flower bed on the side of our house, where the drive way is.

They have dogs in their backyard that are noisy a lot of the time and drives us crazy.

It has come to my attention that the people next door are probably affiliated with gangsters, judging from the way they dress and the types of guests that come over to their house.

Today, I was trying to fix up a spot in my window where I can record one the the loud cars playing their music so I can have some evidence of the noise, and one of the guys standing out there saw me and said, "What the F*** you looking at?" That guy was whering red and looked like he had just gotten out of prison not too long ago.

My wife and I are now afraid for our lives and my families safety, given the various circunstances and have left our house today to stay at my mom's. We plan to go back Monday morning a get our stuff out of the house and drop off the keys at the property management. I have told the property management about the problem and the only thing they seem to be concerned about is collecting for the remaining four months on the lease, although I have issued at statement to the property owner asking to be released from the lease, given the circumstances. Our house is not safe. These people do what ever they want if anybody has a problem with it all h*** breaks loose. While I waited for the police the last time I called them, I heard the oldest woman who is a grand mother, refer to my wife as a "b*tch" when my wife was in the house, and the owner of the house tell his grand children that I am a "f***ing prick". Generally speaking, they seem to have no moral code what so ever.

I have police reports, a video of the dog in our yard, I submitted a statement to the City Hall in the town we live, I have the testimonly of my neighobors across the street and another neighbor who lives behind me, who both say that our next door neighbors have been a problem for a very long time, specifically the music. In fact, the tenants who lived in our house previously abandoned the house, according to one of our neighbors because of the continuous loud unresolved music.

Could I win if they took me to court and sue us for the remainder of the lease money ?
Your LL is not responsible for your neighbor's actions.

And your neighbors haven't threatened you in any way. Just because you THINK they are thugs or gang members who have recently gotten out of prison doesn't mean that's the truth. Sounds more like you think that will be more convincing to get you out of the lease without penalty. Not going to work.

You can be held liable for unpaid rent until the end of the lease, or until a new tenant is found to replace you, whichever occurs first. The LL has a duty to mitigate their losses by actively seeking a new tenant.
 

latigo

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

We've been living at our rental house to two months. We signed a six-month lease. .... Our neighbors next door play their music at a volume that is intolerable. . . .
Well, with all reverence to the two responding wannabes, I must disagree with their unenlightened remarks.

My suggestion is that you vacate upon declaring that your commitments under the lease are void due to a breach of the covenant of “quiet enjoyment”!

Then let the apathetic landlord take his best shot in court.

Whether written into it or not, there is a covenant in every lease of real property that the tenant shall be afforded the right to the “quiet enjoyment” and use of the premises. This obviously is not so.

And although it is not the landlord that is interfering with that inherent right, it would appear from past tenant history, if nothing else, that he or she was fully aware of the intolerable noise disturbances at the time of the execution of the lease. And if so, the landlord was under a duty to so inform you.

If you want some suggestions as to how to gather evidence in anticipation of defending a lawsuit by the landlord, let me know. Most should be rather obvious.

Good luck
 

Dan10

Junior Member
Well, with all reverence to the two responding wannabes, I must disagree with their unenlightened remarks.

My suggestion is that you vacate upon declaring that your commitments under the lease are void due to a breach of the covenant of “quiet enjoyment”!

Then let the apathetic landlord take his best shot in court.

Whether written into it or not, there is a covenant in every lease of real property that the tenant shall be afforded the right to the “quiet enjoyment” and use of the premises. This obviously is not so.

And although it is not the landlord that is interfering with that inherent right, it would appear from past tenant history, if nothing else, that he or she was fully aware of the intolerable noise disturbances at the time of the execution of the lease. And if so, the landlord was under a duty to so inform you.

If you want some suggestions as to how to gather evidence in anticipation of defending a lawsuit by the landlord, let me know. Most should be rather obvious.

Good luck
Wow, thanks so much. "Quiet enjoyment" is something that didn't occur to me.
 

Searchertwin

Senior Member
Wow, thanks so much. "Quiet enjoyment" is something that didn't occur to me.

Don't get to excited.

I agree with Latgio except for one thing, it has to come from another tenant of the LL. Being just a neighbor, the LL has no authority to make him lower the noise. He would have to do what you are basically doing, calling the police, etc.

But as stated, since the LL knew of the problem, he should have told you about it. But would that matter in breaking the lease? Questionable. This is something that for me, would go in circles.

But on a personable note, I would let them out of the lease if they were not happy, without penalties, but that me.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Dan is this a single family home or multi unit and last thing does someone other than your landlord own the units where the current neighborhoods noise makers / foul mouths live ? If they are all owned by same Landlord yes the LL can take some steps to end the problem. If those structures /units are owned by some one else, yes its reasonable for a landlord to have told you ahead of time the neighborhood has many unpleasant & loud people. BUT you also could have driven over there at other times of day too to snoop out the neighborhood to see if it was noisy etc before signing that lease. You may well be better off asking them if they will accept one month of rent as penalty for breaking the lease & suggest you will be following what happens with the house and if they choose to let it sit too long then they can explain to a court why it took so long to find someone to re rent it ( especially since you had a short term lease to start with) There is no real way to know how a court would rule but the more proofs you have of complaints about noise including perhaps checking over the last year or more how many police reports / calls were made about those units ( address specific) those sorts of things may help. BTW next time around i suggest you have good paper trails too of your communications with landlords about problems like this inc sending after the fact written on paper letter laying out what the phone call was & send it via certified mail.
 

tranquility

Senior Member
Can you show me the the real california code that states that ? NOT a website which summarizes the law ?
It's not that easy. But, for a great discussion on the law of quiet enjoyment, see:
Andrews v. Mobile Aire Estates, 22 Cal. Rptr. 3d 832

For the specific issue you are asking about, see:
Petroleum Collections Inc. v. Swords, 48 Cal. App. 3d 841
Lee v. Placer Title Co., 28 Cal. App. 4th 503
 

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