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Hi, I'm hoping that someone here can help me figure this out...
We moved to our current location (close to family) in the beginning of October, signing a one year lease. We had not lived around family in over a decade, and thought we'd come out here while we regrouped and figured out where we want to end up. (DH works from home now, and we home school so we could go anywhere within an hour or so of a decent airport)
Well, it didn't take long for us to decide that living near family is NOT an ideal situation for us, and have been miserable here pretty much since the 3rd week we've been back. We are far less tolerant of the climate than we thought we'd be, there have been far more negative interactions with family than positive, we aren't attracted to or impressed with our surroundings at ALL. There's really no benefit to us being here. It's miserable for us and the kids, and no reason to stay EXCEPT FOR THIS LEASE.
We need to figure out a way to make the landlord happy while not wasting the next 9 months of our lives sitting around waiting for this lease to run out. We can't afford 2 rent payments. The kids just want to hurry and settle down, we know where we want to put down roots (finally) and are anxious to GO. However, the landlords are going through a divorce with kids and we feel obligated (contractually and morally) to make their house payments for the term of the lease. We definitely don't wanna leave them 'high and dry'.
We just want to go start our new life. 9 months is a long time to sit and wait around in a situation that wasn't meant to be!
Should i just rally the troops to suck it up and try to duck crazy family members while we wait it out? Or........ anyone know of any options for us? Have you been in a similar situation, what would/did you do??
Thanks for the vent! Any thoughts or ideas welcome.
Unless the landlord is willing to realease you from the terms of the lease (which many will do with a cash payment), or you're willing to skip out on your obligations and risk being found and sued, you've got to abide by the contract you signed, like it or not.
Sometimes, you can study the terms of the lease and find a legal way to break it, especially if the landlord hasn't been real prompt about fixing things.
The lease doesn't say anything about subleasing, what's expected if you want out early, how much notice to give, nothing. it's a pretty vague lease. it does say the amount due by the end of the lease, which i've never seen before. it says "due by (end of lease date) - $15,000"
I just wish i could offer something before i bring it up to them, so as not to stress them out or make me look bad. :-P
The lease doesn't say anything about subleasing, what's expected if you want out early, how much notice to give, nothing. it's a pretty vague lease. it does say the amount due by the end of the lease, which i've never seen before. it says "due by (end of lease date) - $15,000"
I just wish i could offer something before i bring it up to them, so as not to stress them out or make me look bad. :-P
There's nothing about what happens if either party wants out? Usually, the deal is that you agree to continue paying the rent until they re-rent the place, which they are under no obligation to do.
If the lease is that vague, perhaps you should consult a lawyer before doing anything.
Can you find someone to sublease? If someone new takes over your lease, you're out of it, the landlord will receive rent for your lease, sounds win-win?
Option 2 in my mind would be to tell them you would like out of your lease, and let them find new renters. You would be in your lease until they can sign new renters and most likely will be out any deposit you may have paid. This way, though, they can choose who they want to rent and potentially sign a new 1-year lease if that's what they want...
Or perhaps with the divorce, they will want you out sooner if the property needs to be liquidated for assets...might be worth checking into.
I thni you need to stick it out ;nne months is nothing really. Maybe that will give you time to thing the move over better than the last one. Greener pastures will keep calling if not.
There's nothing about what happens if either party wants out? Usually, the deal is that you agree to continue paying the rent until they re-rent the place, which they are under no obligation to do.
If the lease is that vague, perhaps you should consult a lawyer before doing anything.
We just went through a similar situation - moved into a place only to realize within the first few weeks that it was a bad choice for us (noise problem, and we have a baby). When we talked to the property manager about it, we were actually very surprised to find out that they were fine with us leaving as long as they could re-rent the apartment, of course. Now, for us this wasn't a huge issue because our former place was a desirable apartment (3BR, which are hard to find where we are) and in a fabulous location so we had a feeling that it would get rented without too much of a problem. We were lucky that the property manager was very helpful and did manage to rent the place but even still, we were responsible for a couple of weeks rent in the overlap. Could have been much worse, so we are grateful. But it was stressful, the waiting.
In our lease, which was pretty standard issue, it said in vague terms that we could get out of our lease if we gave 60 days notice and if the apartment was re-rented. As the others have said, I'd check your lease carefully first and then talk to your property manager. You could be surprised, as we were, that it might not be impossible. But I think the real issue is that only you know the desirability of your current home - was it on the market for a while before you rented it? Do you think you could re-rent again? And, even though you wouldn't want to pay two rents for the remainder of your lease, if you can swing it for a couple of months that might buy you the time you need to find a new place for yourselves and find a new tenant for your current place.
Should i just rally the troops to suck it up and try to duck crazy family members while we wait it out? Or........ anyone know of any options for us?
You should contact your landlord and explain to them that you've made a mistake, ask them if there's anything they could do to help you leave. I presume the help would be to try and rent the house to a new tenant. You can offer to help show the house and you can do your part to keep it neat and clean and presentable for prospective tenants, then be ready to move if a new tenant decides to lease the house.
That seems to me to be your most likely way out, help your landlord rent the house to a new tenant. Otherwise you'll probably be stuck paying for the rest of your lease term, and I presume that means you won't have sufficient money to afford to rent a house elsewhere and pay the current house at the same time, so unless you can convince the landlord to rent the house to somebody else you're going to be stuck there for the remainder of the term.
What happened to the idea of sucking it up and taking on responsibility for the your own actions?
Time for valuable lesson 101 for the kiddies -- if you sign a contract, you uphold to your contractual agreement.
You knew upon moving there that it just might not work out. That is the beauty with renting instead of buying - you have an out. If it isn't working out, suck it up and make the best of it. Start planning on your next move. Teach the kids how to plan ahead with saving their pennies; sorting their items into keep, donate, throw out; packing the house; and scouting for jobs and/or housing for the next adventure.
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