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Guest
Help. I own an apartment complex in Mississippi. My tenant has a lease through September 1, 2001. The tenant called me two months ago stating that the hot water heater was dangerous. We had it checked out by an electrician. It's old but not dangerous was his response. Then the tenant called about three weeks ago and wanted out of his lease because he found a house he wanted to rent. We told him the only way he could get out was to find someone to take over his lease. Since then he has called the fire marshall and an electrician trying to find something wrong with the apartment. The fire marshall found no problems with the property. The electrician recommended a new breaker box because the tenant said the fuses were blowing constantly. The reason the fuses were blowing was because the tenant refused to get his gas turned on and was improperly heating the apartment. The apartment is heated by gas furnaces. He had electric heaters plugged in all over the apartment. The house could not handle that type of electricity and so the fuse was blowing and the tenant was cold. But the lease clearly states that the tenant is responsible for gas. The tenant served us notice of the electician's report on January 18 and said that he would vacate on February 18. He stated that we could apply his deposit for the last month's rent. He violated his lease by having more occupants than the lease specified and having pets in the apartment. He has moved out and left a lot of trash and some furniture and clothes. There is a hole in the wall and the carpet has pet stains. My question is, can he just vacate the premises without giving us an opportunity to remedy his complaint about the electrical box. Although the elctrical box and hot water heater met codes, we will replace them if necessary. What time frame do we have to do this in before we are considered not taking care of the property. We feel these tenants are just looking for a loophole and found another place they liked better. What recourse do we have?