terminate lease early due to water heater broke (apartments, renters)

[dajefferson26]

the water heater in the apartment above me broke, and this is the second time this has happened, i feel unsafe in apartment due to this and I also discovered that another pipe in the walls has also broke, can I terminate my lease early without penalty due to this, the manager of the apartments told me that I could not

[Rocco Barbosa]

Originally Posted by dajefferson26

the water heater in the apartment above me broke, and this is the second time this has happened, i feel unsafe in apartment due to this and I also discovered that another pipe in the walls has also broke, can I terminate my lease early without penalty due to this, the manager of the apartments told me that I could not

Contact you local lawyer.

Or use http://www.justanswer.com/landlord-tenant/

[ElleKaye]

I am by no means a lawyer, but I can say GA is not a tenant-friendly state. However, my first step would be to start putting my comments to the landlord in writing. If the landlord fixed the problem in a timely manner, then it may be kind of tough to prove neglicgence but I'm not sure. Anyway, I am saying have less chat and produce more documentation.

[ATLTJL]

I don't believe you can.

However, if you are worried about something happening that causes damage to your personal property, I would highly recommend that you obtain renters insurance if you don't already have it.

It only costs a few bucks a month.

I know you're thinking, "why should I have to buy insurance for his crummy building?" It's called risk mitigation. If a pipe bursts and ruins a bunch of your stuff, you can either: a) file an insurance claim with your renters insurance and get it replaced b) spend months and thousands of dollars on lawyers fighting him in court and possibly not win anyway.

Get renters insurance and move out at the end of your lease.

[vince217]

i was able to break lease without penalty because I complained several times that there was water leaking from the apartment above me, and was damaging some of my personal items. After several attempts by the apartments maintenance staff to locate and repair the problem, the leak continued. so, i looked for another place to live, and i did. so i had to break the current lease. at first, management was going to charge me the penalty fee. i then wrote a letter to them stating that after several attempts at fixing the leak by their own staff, the leak continued, and this was the primary reason for me to break the lease and look for alternate living arrangements. they then cancelled the penalty.

i think it all depends on whether or not you have already suffered damage to yourself or to your property, and whether or not the staff has had enough time to try and fix the problem.