Have any of you gotten out of a lease before? Advice needed! Important!

[Nagle]

My landlord is a complete dick who never fixes anything in my apt. Some of the broken things are major like fucked up wiring, and the faucet in the tub which constantly pours (not drips) hot water to the point where the entire bathroom is full of steam. Sometimes, when the faucet leaks more than usual, all the windows in the apt fog up and the towel rack in the bathroom fell out of the wall because the steam rots the drywall. We've also been promised a new refrigerator for over a year. We complain and complain to the landlord but he's rarely fixed any of the things that need repair much less in a timely fashion. He is definitely guilty of slum-landlordism.


Because of the above, my roommate and I want to move elsewhere. Problem is the lease extends until August so unless we get out of the lease, we can't go anywhere. He's breaking his contractual obligations by not fixing this stuff and we want to get out of the lease because of that. How do we go about doing this legally (without getting sued by the landlord) and without having to go to court and pay legal fees?

 

[Nagle]

We don't want to sublet the place. There's too much broken stuff for that.

 

[deadair]

i hate it when the board pulls that crap...



anyway...


if you haven't started writing everything down... start now. everytime you ask him to fix something, write it down. it would also be good if you could take pics of the broken shit.

as far as lawyers go... you should be able to take him to small claims court, where you won't need a lawyer. just make sure you have your shit together.

there are a ton of web sites and org's where you can find info on renters rights... FIGHT THE POWER!

 

[minxnim]

you know, you will have to take him to court if he doesnt want to let you out of the lease, but it's just housing court, it's no big deal. i wish i could help you, but you're not in NYC so the laws are different than they are here. you can get a free lawyer from the legal aid society.
chances are however, that if you write your landlord a letter stating the above matters of disrepair, send it certified, return receipt requested.... and say you are going to report them to the housing court, he'll let you leave before that just so you dont report him.

 

[deadair]

preppy with the slam dunk...


BOO YAAA

 

[XzanderX]

you could always have him waked...

 

[Nagle]

We've already started writing stuff down that we've asked to get fixed.

A number of the broken things aren't easily depicted with photographs like a door that doesn't close or the fucked up wiring.

I've looked at some of the websites on renters rights but I assumed that when they said that you'd have to go to court to break the lease, I thought we'd have to pay for a lawyer.

How would we go about taking the landlord to a small claims court and would we need to have found a new place to live by the time we want to get out of the lease?

 

[Nagle]

Oooh. Thanks preppy. The response above is to Jake's post.

 

[Nagle]

I just realized...

There's a bit of a problem: he's constantly in court (several days out of the week) so I don't know if taking him to housing court would be such a big deal to him.

 

[Nagle]

I just realized...

There's a bit of a problem: he's constantly in court (several days out of the week) so I don't know if the threat of taking him to housing court would be such a big deal to him.

 

[minxnim]

why would you take him to small claims court? are you trying to get money back from him? if not, you dont want to go to small claims court because there is a filing fee.

first and foremost, find out where the housing court is in your area. then call them, (the clerk), and ask them what you can do. they'll be honest with you. or as for a free legal service referral.

you have to pay a fee to get out of a lease if it's a binding contract and you're trying to 'buy your way out of it', not if he's violating that contract, and therefore it would be null anyway. i really dont think it'd go that far and i think you're getting too technical for your own good.
tell him first you want to leave because the place is a shithole. tell him you'll pay the rent and he can keep the deposit as the last month's, but that's it. see what he says. if he says NO, then write him a letter with ALL THE DETAILS and then in the letter say that you will have to file an action to get all that repaired and you'll withhold rent in escroe until then. he'll shit his pants and let you leave. trust me.

 

[avi]

totally what prep said. I doubt this dude would wanna deal with the headache of court if it can be avoided.

 

[Nagle]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[minxnim]

this is the thing: in most states (what state are you in?) the landlord HAS to pay an attorney to go to housing court and the tenant can represent themselves if they want to. basically, you need to get specific (for your state) landlord tenant laws. again, call the attorney general's office if you can't find where the free legal services are (they always exist).
anyway, i work in a law office. we have a landlord tenant sector. so if you need me to, i can ask them for a referral to your state if you want.

 

[Nagle]

A hypothetical situation:

What if I talk to the landlord and tell him that I want out but then later he fixes the shit. What do I do then, assuming that I still want to get out?