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This actually happened to me years ago, and I wanted to share my experience after reading some of these threads.
I was living in Chicago in not that great of an area where there was a lot of gang activity between different Hispanic groups. I worked several jobs at the time and came home late at night. One evening, I came home to blood covering all the walls of the lobby-- serious murder scene stuff-- splatters on walls, pools on floors. The security door had broken glass and there were stains and smears all the way to the second floor where they abruptly ended in front of my neighbor's door.
Freaked, I called the cops and waited for several hours for them to show up. In the meantime, my neighbor who was white as a ghost, came stumbling out of his unit and was trundled off into a waiting car.
The next day a 12 year old girl sat in the lobby crying and washing the blood off the walls.
Immediately I went to the landlord and told him I was breaking the lease because I feared for my safety. He shrugged and said that because I was black (and not Hispanic) I shouldn't be concerned-- that the violent episode was about gang warfare and that I was not affected in this turf war.
I rented another apartment and hired movers immediately. The LL kept threatening to take me to court saying I was not affected, but I had the police report and had taken pics. The LL still maintained this had nothing to do with me and did not directly affect our lease agreement. He tried to block me from moving and called and harassed me saying I owed him rent. But after a few weeks he gave up.
I never thought twice about the fact that I was within my rights to move, but reading some of these threads, now I wonder. Did I have grounds to break my lease? Should I have handled this differently?
Last edited by whatisthedealwith; 01-15-2014 at 02:45 PM..
never thought twice about the fact that I was within my rights to move, but reading some of these threads, now I wonder. Did I have grounds to break my lease? Should I have handled this differently?
The answer can vary case by case, but generally speaking if an apartment complex is not secure, you could easily have grounds to break a lease.
In determining liability for crimes committed in shared areas of apartments, courts will generally ask two questions before determining if a landlord/owner is liable.
1) Was it foreseeable that such an incident would or could occur.
2) Did the landlord take reasonable steps to prevent such from happening.
These same questions would almost certainly be the basis for any termination of the lease due to crime. Courts have held that the landlord of a property in a high crime area has a greater duty to secure his complex than the owner of one in a low crime area.
I never thought twice about the fact that I was within my rights to move, but reading some of these threads, now I wonder. Did I have grounds to break my lease? Should I have handled this differently?
Gee, and to think this happened in Chicago of all places
Whether or not you had legal grounds to break your lease, obviously you needed to get the hell out of there. Suppose you are walking into the lobby right when some gang member opens fire with his AK-47. Even if you're not the target you're in pretty severe danger, and a *lot* of gang-related killings have collateral damage including unintended targets being killed.
I think you would win in court if the landlord bothered to sue, since the murder was in a public area of the building and was part of an ongoing gang war, which means there was every reason to think it could happen again. But I'm no lawyer.
My neighbor got shot a few years ago. And another neighbor moved. Been here 8 yrs only shooting. Well yes you over reacted IMO But then after the way the LL acted about you leaving He too over reacted.
I don't know, but what you did worked, so why do it differently?
I'm just supposin' here - but I'm wondering if renting a unit in an area that was known as high crime with gang violence - if caveat emptor wouldn't come into play. But, I have absolutely no law to back that up.
Your mission was to get out of the lease without penalty, and you did that. Works for me.
I didn't have that bad of an experience, but I lived in a complex that was pretty bad. My apartment was broken into and my dog was stolen. Since I knew who it was (some thugs who lived 2 buildings away), my car ended up with bullet holes in it and the windows were gone. It was a large complex, and they required me to provide a police report to break the lease.
This actually happened to me years ago, and I wanted to share my experience after reading some of these threads.
I was living in Chicago in not that great of an area where there was a lot of gang activity between different Hispanic groups. I worked several jobs at the time and came home late at night. One evening, I came home to blood covering all the walls of the lobby-- serious murder scene stuff-- splatters on walls, pools on floors. The security door had broken glass and there were stains and smears all the way to the second floor where they abruptly ended in front of my neighbor's door.
Freaked, I called the cops and waited for several hours for them to show up. In the meantime, my neighbor who was white as a ghost, came stumbling out of his unit and was trundled off into a waiting car.
The next day a 12 year old girl sat in the lobby crying and washing the blood off the walls.
Immediately I went to the landlord and told him I was breaking the lease because I feared for my safety. He shrugged and said that because I was black (and not Hispanic) I shouldn't be concerned-- that the violent episode was about gang warfare and that I was not affected in this turf war.
I rented another apartment and hired movers immediately. The LL kept threatening to take me to court saying I was not affected, but I had the police report and had taken pics. The LL still maintained this had nothing to do with me and did not directly affect our lease agreement. He tried to block me from moving and called and harassed me saying I owed him rent. But after a few weeks he gave up.
I never thought twice about the fact that I was within my rights to move, but reading some of these threads, now I wonder. Did I have grounds to break my lease? Should I have handled this differently?
Under the circumstance, I would have probably did the same thing without hesitation.
when it becomes a matter of safety.
seriously, who give a rats ass about a lease.
i would move right out and call it a day.
no LL is going to put my life and family in jeapoardy.
and that falls under that catagory of tough.
This actually happened to me years ago, and I wanted to share my experience after reading some of these threads.
I was living in Chicago in not that great of an area where there was a lot of gang activity between different Hispanic groups. I worked several jobs at the time and came home late at night. One evening, I came home to blood covering all the walls of the lobby-- serious murder scene stuff-- splatters on walls, pools on floors. The security door had broken glass and there were stains and smears all the way to the second floor where they abruptly ended in front of my neighbor's door.
Freaked, I called the cops and waited for several hours for them to show up. In the meantime, my neighbor who was white as a ghost, came stumbling out of his unit and was trundled off into a waiting car.
The next day a 12 year old girl sat in the lobby crying and washing the blood off the walls.
Immediately I went to the landlord and told him I was breaking the lease because I feared for my safety. He shrugged and said that because I was black (and not Hispanic) I shouldn't be concerned-- that the violent episode was about gang warfare and that I was not affected in this turf war.
I rented another apartment and hired movers immediately. The LL kept threatening to take me to court saying I was not affected, but I had the police report and had taken pics. The LL still maintained this had nothing to do with me and did not directly affect our lease agreement. He tried to block me from moving and called and harassed me saying I owed him rent. But after a few weeks he gave up.
I never thought twice about the fact that I was within my rights to move, but reading some of these threads, now I wonder. Did I have grounds to break my lease? Should I have handled this differently?
I think you handled it very we'll since this is different than the shot in the ceiling although that is horrific too and nothing I would like to deal with either.
The shot in the ceiling should be reported to the cops and may be an accident but the cops probably will charge the person and take the guns.
In your case it was a freak show and clearly gang related and something that can occur more often. It would have been different if a husband kills his wife or the other way around and the murderer goes to jail and the other one is of course no longer there and it was clearly an incident that will not be repeated.
Wow what a story and not something you want to stay and hang around to see what to expect next.
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