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I've been applying to the housing lotteries for some time now, but haven't had luck with anything yet. I had a potential apartment back in August, which was great because my lease was ending in December. Unfortunately, I had to turn down the apartment due to size and configuration. In my frustration I ended up renewing my rent-stabilized lease for another 2 years. I'm currently waiting on a response from one apartment and I still continue to apply because I know it takes forever to score one of these places, but what if I do find one? What are the consequences of breaking a rent stabilized lease? One of the reasons I want to move is because there's a leak in my bedroom whenever it rains. They patch it up for a while, but it always comes back. I've lived here for over 4 years and it's still not resolved. Do you think I can use it as leverage for breaking my lease? Any ideas, links, feedback will be greatly appreciated!
You can almost always break a lease on a rent stabilized apartment you will just loose your deposit. Reason is the more turnover there is on RS apartment, the LL does some repairs and include it in the rent to increase it faster to get it out of a rs apartment. Why do 2 years if you will be moving, why not just do year by year and the closer you get to obtaining another apartment, you can usually do month to month instead of a lease. Believe me the LL will be happy to wait until you are out completely.
You can almost always break a lease on a rent stabilized apartment you will just loose your deposit. Reason is the more turnover there is on RS apartment, the LL does some repairs and include it in the rent to increase it faster to get it out of a rs apartment. Why do 2 years if you will be moving, why not just do year by year and the closer you get to obtaining another apartment, you can usually do month to month instead of a lease. Believe me the LL will be happy to wait until you are out completely.
Thank you for your feedback! I did 2 years because I was going to give up searching for a while. I hate the whole process of renewing my lease and I didn't want to risk losing my rent concession ("discount" on rent) if I didn't find anything within a year. The rent concession is not guaranteed to be renewed, so I tried to keep it as long as possible. Also, I thought I read somewhere that they don't do month-to-month, but I could be wrong. I will have to research.
I totally broke my lease on my rent stabilized apartment years ago.. Trust me they probably wanted me out to raise the rent! It was only by a few months. I moved out in May, my lease was up in November, so it wasn't a problem. I lost my deposit, which was fine.
I broke a non stabilized lease - just asked the management company, and they said as long as they could re-rent it, no problem. They rented it within 3 days, and I moved out at the end of the month. I didn't lose my deposit.
The key with all of these situations is asking - they are not obligated to let you out of the lease but I'd think for a stabilized apartment, where they can get more with a new tenant, they'll definitely be interested!
Thank you all for the feedback! I just found out I was denied for the apartment I was waiting for. Over $375.00 that I'm not guaranteed to make anyway (child support)....I 'm so disappointed, but it also means I probably won't be breaking my lease anytime soon. :-(
I have broken a newly renewed lease but I was on an "affordable" deal available to prior residents of Jersey City. My landlord, Lefrak, was very nice about my moving, let me apply my security deposit to rent and even gave me another week gratis because my move timing was clumsy.
(sometimes hard to coordinate move time with lease expiration.)
Another was a Rent Controlled apartment on Commerce Street. Landlord was DELIGHTED to see us move out. No penalty, natch.
Landlords only try to squeeze tenants who want to leave when that tenant is paying more than the landlord can conceivably get from the next fool willing to overpay. "Lovely street level studio only $4,000/month."
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