trying to find stuff on getting out of a lease eary (apartment, lease agreement)

[jumac]

I have been looking all over for info that i can understand.

We have a 6 month lease with the landlord but there is nothing in it on how to get out of it early. The only part that says that i can give notice is when the lease is about to expire we can give notice that we don't want to renew at least 30 before it expires. The apartment is one that my girlfriend has been living in for over 7 years. We have been looking for a new/better place for a while and now think we got one. but are trying to find a way to get out with out him coming after us for the rest of the rent for the lease.

couple things as to why we want to leave.

1st there is water damage in one of the bedrooms along the outside upper walls and such.
2nd the kichten floor is comming up.
3rd the landlord dose not live in the building but a few blocks down. but he keeps the fuse boxes lockup so only he can get to them.
4th the landlord controls the heat. but the control and temp gage that tells the heater to turn on/off are not in the apartment but downstairs so althought its is set to state reg there are times when it dose not heat up the apartment to the right temp.
5th for the damage to the 2 rooms mentioned above he has said he will not do any repairs to them while there are people living in the apartment

[puntin]

How much time do you have left on the lease? I know when we were renting a house, we bought a house with about 2 months still left on the leased house. We just talked to our landlord about it. He was very understanding and had no problem with us breaking our lease agreement. Of course, we were willing to pay through the end of the lease as well, but he didn't want us to (he already had someone willing to lease the house).

[lrfox]

Each lease is different (unless he copied the standard state lease), so if any of those conditions you list is a broken term of the lease on his end, you may have grounds for leaving.

My suggestion, however, would be to ask ASAP if you can leave early. Try and find a new tenant for him (you may not have to, but it would be a good thing to do). If you give enough notice and time for him to find someone to take over, he may let you do it without any trouble. The key here is notice and time... to be fair, you need to do your best to make sure that your landlord doesn't lose potential income because of you leaving and you shouldn't have too much trouble.

I would also consider finding someone to sub-let to. If you can find someone to take over the last few months of your lease, then you should have few problems.

Try talking to the guy... it's usually the best way. If you don't come out of left field with this, then there should be a way to work it out.

[jumac]

the lease states that we at at will tentants and such. as for finding a new person soon. well let me put it this way, i take a size 12 shoe and walking toe to heal i can walk form one end of the apartment to the other in bout 30 steps. Its basicaly 5 rooms kitchen/living room/1st bedroom/2nd bedroom/bathroom. and the second bedroom is nothing more then converted outdoor poach. the lay out is come in kitchen can walk in a stright line into the living room to the 1st bedroom with the bathroom off the living room and to ge to to the second bedroom gota go through the 1st. before he can rent it out agian he gota do the reapair work to the 2nd bedroom for the water damage/leak and fix the kitchen floor. as i said will not fix then while we are living in the apartment. and he want to up the rent to $750 which based on info form other landlords who are firends is way to much for how small a space it is.

[Casper1212]

At will? It sounds like your girlfriend satisfied the term of the lease long ago. Unless it specifically states that you have the option of renewing every six months. It also sounds like your landlord has violated your rights as a renter. Yes, there is such a thing as renter's rights. Check the lease for what kind of repairs and maintenance you are responsible for. It may be that his refusal to make repairs violates the lease. In which case, he would have no right to hold you to the lease if you choose to walk away. If you have a friend who is a lawyer ask him or her to take a look at your lease. By the way, that water damage may also include mold. That's a health risk that could make the apartment unrentable until the health inspector or city building inspector decides that the place is habitable.

[elston]

The original rental agreement was with your girl friend, 7 years ago.....the apartment may be small but not too small for one person or even a mother and child....who wouldnt worry about the access to the second bedroom being thru her bedroom.

Since she has been content to stay there for the past 7 years.....it sounds as if the major change is that you came into her life and into her apartment. If she has been there for 7 years....it doesnt sound out of line that he would like to increase the rent. Does she have a decent relationship with him; is your name on the lease? Maybe you should let her do the negotiation.

On another thread yesterday you asked a similar question and we learned that in Maine the fuses must be accessible to the tenant unless the landlord or his representative is on the premises at all times. But it seems that your intention is to break the lease, not to correct the question about the fuses.

[Connecticut Pam]

I believe in most states it is legal to find someone to take over the remainder of your lease meaning find someone to rent your apartment to cover the rest of your lease. You may, with the list of repairs and issues have a hard time finding someone to rent this place. Should you go to an attorney for advice as to how to get out of this rent, he/she will want to know if this place was so bad then why did your girlfriend stay there so long? Might be hard to reach an agreement because of this.

First, talk with your Landlord and ask him if you were to find someone to cover the lease, would he take the time to fix what is most urgent so this person could move in. Ask him how long he would need the place to be vacant in order to make the repairs.

My advice.....contact an attorney for find out if there is a renters advocate in your area. Good Luck....

[jumac]

yes with me comming in that can be a change. but as for the rent and wanting to get out of here. the landlord planned on raising the rent before i came into her life anyways (just so you know the rent was $635.00 but he is reising it in portions and not all at once) also my gf wanted to find something new for a while before i came into her life beacuse of the damage to the unit.

[lrfox]

It's reasonable to raise the price of a lease every few years to adjust for inflation which is right around 5% annually. In fact, it would technically be reasonable to raise the cost of renting by 5% annually, but it would never fly because salaries and hourly pay tends to not "adjust" for inflation annually. If he charged $635 for the first year of the lease and the second year of the lease, that $635 is about 5% less valuable in year two than it was in year one. Having rent raised to $750 from an initial $635 after 7 years doesn't seem like a bad deal to me (15% increase after 7 years) regardless of the size of the apartment.

Like others have mentioned, talk to the landlord and try to work out an agreement with him (either for getting out early, finding new tenants, or subletting). If that fails, find an attorney if your rights are being violated. I think it's illegal for a landlord in Maine to not allow you to sublet (though most will ask that you allow them to interview the tenants). Good luck.

[Raffie]

If you have issues with your rental and the landlord is failing to fix key issues then you might beable to go to court to get out.