Invalid lease... do I still have to give 30 days by law? (rental, assessor)

[jefe09]

Hello All,

I made a big mistake in renting a room from someone that I was referred to and I signed an 18 month lease with this person and I found reason to invalidate the lease completely... my question is do I still have to provide this person with a 30 day notice?

Reasons to invalidate the lease I found...

*2 weeks of not fixing the hot water when a pipe burst in my bathroom
**Allowing access to my room on more then one occasion without notification
***Not making it clear that the room I rented would always be hotter then rest of the house
****Told me that rent would be $600 a month all included, then I find she charges anything over $250 to split between the roommates
*****The only one I really need... I found that she files taxes for this property as her primary residence when she doesn't live there.

As you can tell everyone this has been not so fun, it's affecting my personal life and my work so I'm leaving regardless but I'd like to get an idea of the ramifications of state laws!?

Thank you for your help and any info everyone

[jmw51882]

*Has she made an effort to fix the burst pipe? I would suspect so otherwise there wouldn't be a house to live in after continuous flooding for two weeks.
**Was she in you room to access the bathroom in order to fix said water issue in point one? Also, if she doesn't live there, how is she accessing your room? If another roommate let her in, then she wasn't violating anything.
***Again, if she doesn't live there, how would she know this? Make sure the air vent is open.
****This has to be in writing somewhere.
*****How do you know how she files her taxes?

[jefe09]

Thanks for the reply...

*There was never any flooding through the floors, just a lot of noise from pipes that kept me up and no hot water, but yes ultimately the pipe was fixed
**Someone was let in the room to check on the after work that may need to be done..this was the least of the issues but still an invasion of privacy
***There have been other roommates in that room in the past and she knows and acknowledges that it's warmer
****The lease was given to me after I had already moved and I didn't feel like I had any choice(I understand this was my fault)
*****I looked up the taxes for the address through the County Assessor's office online and for the last 5 years at least it's been filed as a primary residence, which is illegal (to be clear I would only use this info as a last resort)

Thanks again...

[observer53]

Originally Posted by jefe09

Thanks for the reply...

*There was never any flooding through the floors, just a lot of noise from pipes that kept me up and no hot water, but yes ultimately the pipe was fixed
**Someone was let in the room to check on the after work that may need to be done..this was the least of the issues but still an invasion of privacy
***There have been other roommates in that room in the past and she knows and acknowledges that it's warmer
****The lease was given to me after I had already moved and I didn't feel like I had any choice(I understand this was my fault)
*****I looked up the taxes for the address through the County Assessor's office online and for the last 5 years at least it's been filed as a primary residence, which is illegal (to be clear I would only use this info as a last resort)

Thanks again...

How she pays her property taxes has NOTHING to do with your lease. The fact that your room is warmer than the rest of the house doesn't invalidate the lease either.

Checking on the work that was done is a reasonable access to your room, in my opinion. It sounds to me like you are really having buyer's remorse. Yes, you should have known the terms of the lease before you moved in, if you didn't like the lease once you read it, you should have declined to sign it and moved out.

If your lease allows for 30 days notice, then that's what you should give.

[jefe09]

Oh I'm definitely having buyer's remorse...LoL... it's been horrible to put it mildly...

True that the warmth issue doesn't invalidate either... just something I was not told...

I agree that's it's reasonable to check on the work but it's also basic law and of course courtesy to notify a minimum of 24 hours in advance(unless there was an emergency or urgent matter)

If the property isn't listed with the County Assessor as a rental property than by law I believe she can't enforce or even have any kind of lease on the property... at least that's my understanding... I might have to check with a lawyer on this part then...

or she may just have to pay back taxes for however long she's been doing this... should a little birdie make a phone call

[The_Cadillac_Lawyer]

Only way you can break the lease is for breach of habitability (i.e, inhabitable living conditions) Even then, you'll need to put your regular lease payments into escrow as an act of good faith.
I agree with Observer, sounds like buyers remorse.
Why not just try to work it out amicably with the owner?

[jefe09]

*Admitted buyer's remorse* I cannot and will not live their for much longer... it just didn't workout and sometimes these things happen.

To be clear working it out amicably is definitley my hope and that may very well happen. I'm just the type of person that likes to have their ducks in a row before I jump into something like this SHOULD it not go well.

[jefe09]

How is a lease legal if it's not a rental property??

[Zippyman]

There isn't anything that will "invalidate" a lease, unless one of the parties is a child -even then,
- the adult in the contract is still bound by it.

That said, you're obviously unhappy & planning to move anyway - so just do it.

The landlord has an obligation to mitigate their damages and would have to prove them in court before being able to collect anything.

So move, make them sue you & negotiate if/when they do. I'd be very surprised if a landlord renting rooms would bother with suing a tenant who just booked without trashing the place.

That said, since your google-fu is strong, you can look up small-claims cases on the web & see if your landlord is the type to file.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by jefe09

How is a lease legal if it's not a rental property??

that's none of your business // not your issue // won't save your butt in court.