Urgently Need Advice in Landlord/Tenant Dispute (Milwaukee, Madison: 2009, apartment)

[TreeinForest]

I am a graduate student, and needed to request a leave of absence for the rest of the school year. Since my student loans were stopped at that point, I needed to break my lease that officially ends in June 2009. Under our lease agreements, I am responsible for the rent until a new tenant is found. I have done everything in my power to find a tenant, and have forwarded several people to my landlord, but no one has agreed to take the place yet. Since I have no cash at this point and no job, I have tried to reach some sort of compromise, but she does not want to mediate.

The apartment is clean, vacated for the next renter. She's requested I pay the rent for the month of February, and surrender the keys, which does not make sense to me.

I do not know how to work with someone who has no intentions of cooperating with me. She has no incentive to find a new tenant if I borrow money from family/friends in order to continue paying rent until the official end of my lease in June.

What are the repercussions of breaking a lease and forfeiting the security deposit which is equivalent to one month's rent? What procedures must she go through if she decides to negatively impact my credit rating?

Thank you for your advice!

[lynxville]

You cannot break the lease, you are responsible for the rent untill the landlord rents the unit or your lease runs out. But the landlord must advertise and attempt to find a suitable tenant. This may go on your credit rating, but what are you going to do? Just leave her the security deposit and move out.

[karfar]

Yes, the landlord MUST make a good attempt to find another renter. She has to advertise, I believe it is an actual law but I'm not sure on that. It's good that you've made an effort on your part, however she has to as well. I would contact the Department of Neighborhood Services & see what they have to say.

[Hntr]

As a one time landlord in Milwaukee I found it extremely hard to collect from broken leases.

Most of the time it was not worth the hassle or expense to try collecting it. You can't get blood out of a turnip and how would it have help me to ruin someone's credit rating? I always tried to rent the flat or apartment out as soon as possible and usually rented it out before the security deposit was used up.

It's too bad your landlord will not work with you. See if you can find a Tenants association, if I remember correctly there used to be one in Milwaukee.

[thrashee]

I used to live in Milwaukee and had my own landlord dispute at one time.

Do a Google search for tenant/landlord law--there is a plethora of information available on the exact letter of the law, and if I recall correctly, there is even a tenant resource center based out of Madison that offers free advice.

If you pay a certain month's rent, then you are the legal occupant of that apartment for that month--you should NOT surrender your keys in this situation, as the apartment is legally yours. It is against the law for your landlord to rent out your apartment to another tenant during that month you've paid for, as this would be double dipping. If your landlord does find a tenant during that time period, then you would be entitled to a prorated refund of rent depending on when the new tenant took occupancy.

Just as an FYI, during my own dispute I learned that Wisconsin in general tends to favor tenants in legal disputes. I ended up threatening taking my landlord to court, at which point I finally got my deposit back.

The best advice I can give you is to actually read the tenant laws. In my own experience, doing so affords you an empowered position, as you can articulate to your landlord exactly what your rights are in a given situation. Merely doing so is often enough to get a landlord to cooperate, as it demonstrates that you know your rights and won't stand for being jerked around. It also shows that you are aware of your own responsibilities, and that you are acting in good faith to remedy a given situation.

Good luck.

[Angorlee]

try this: //forum.freeadvice.com