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We are in a pretty crappy situation. We recently bought a house and are closing this week. We signed a one year lease and are on the hook for our condo until Aug 29th. Originally when the lease was signed our landlord said if we wanted out early, she would just keep our deposit (which was only $450). With this info, we felt comfortable searching for a house since we know the market is competitive and didn't want to wait on our dream house because of a measly $450. We found it and now we are moving. She has now gone back on her word and is saying we are on the hook for the remaining amount of rent due until August. She gave us the option to find a new leaser to sign a one year lease, or a sub-lease. She has put us in charge of this and has not been any help what so ever. She is, in fact, making it very difficult.
We have posted ads on Craiglist for over a month. We have had quite a few interested people, but only a few who actually have a good looking application and have came to see the place. The first person, who we will call K, was a single mom who was looking for a place for her and her daughter. She had a good looking application and was available to sign a new lease and move in ASAP. We forwarded her to our LL who ran a background check, which she passed, and whom she had a convo with regarding the lease. Our LL contacted us later and told us that she wasn't going to accept K as a tenant due to 'confidential' reasons. She made ME tell K the bad news. K emailed me back saying that the LL told her she was approved last week and that she had no idea why the LL is no longer accepting her. She also told me she had called the LL numerous times, to which the LL just ignored. Our LL completely screened K's calls because she wanted ME (the tenant) to tell her the bad news. Talk about professionalism!
So since she wasn't going to accept K, we obviously had to look for a new tenant. We found one, who we will call G. G and his family (wife and 11mo daughter) were very interested and had a great looking application (with great rental history). Their current rent was $300 over the rent of this place (they've lived there for 3 years), so affording the place wasn't an issue. I forwarded everything to our LL. She texted me back saying she "wasn't comfortable renting to a family". Last time I checked, discrimination is illegal when looking for renters. This guy has had a stable job, has a long rental history, and has his boss as a reference (which you obviously only due if you're on good terms). She literally and blatantly said it was a liability for her to have a family with a child renting from her and living in the condo and we should look for new people. I have looked up and read as much of the Fair Housing Act as I can and what our LL is doing is clearly illegal. To make it worse, when I initially forwarded her his info, she didn't even bother to reach out to them even after I had said specifically that they were waiting for her call and were available anytime. This was after she asked if it was a couple, and after I replied a couple and their daughter.
She has been so unprofessional and is now breaking the law. She has made this SO DIFFICULT. We have been good tenants. Rent has been paid in full on time (even early) every month. She has not offered to help us find new tenants. I have done all the showings and emailing myself. I cannot legally go on craigslist or any site and post a condo for only people with 'no families'. It is illegal and I refuse to get in trouble for her actions.
She made a bona fide offer to K that she was accepted, which she then took back (also illegal in the Fair Housing Act) and is now refusing G the condo because he has a kid (which is now leading me to believe she did the same with K). She doesn't even have the decency to break the bad new to her interested applicants herself. This is YOUR property, YOUR *ILLEGAL* decision, do it yourself.
At this point, we are looking into legal help regarding the matter, but until we have time to do that, is there any advice or laws stating us being off the hook for a lease if the landlord breaks the law and is discriminating against all the possible tenants we send her way? And also, how valid is her initial stating of keeping the deposit when we originally signed? She didn't write that down, and why would she since she's clearly a terrible LL, but it was a verbal statement my girlfriend and I both heard. I don't care if she keeps the deposit, as long as we can sign ourselves off the lease without being on the hook for 3 months rent.
There is a lot going on here and in the passion of the emotion you are intermixing them even though they hold no relevance to each other. Your best bet is an attorney to help you sort through the options, as you are doing. Also, bad mouthing her in a public forum, even though you have tried to keep it anonymous, may come back to haunt you. Ultimately it is your problem to find a replacement tenant and that includes notifications etc. You signed the lease and excepted a verbal promise. as a result you have learned a lesson about getting things in writing. Hopefully that will help you in the future. Good luck.
Do you have documented conversations (ie in writing) regarding your landlord agreeing to let you sublease...or even emails back and forth showing candidates? Would they be willing to back you up? Document like hell and keep their contact info.
If so, you've made reasonable attempts to fulfill your lease. You've fulfilled your duty. Move out, and if they dare take you to court, counter sue. If they hold your security, take them to small claims. I'm not an attorney but worked in a law firm for years and saw this pretty regularly. The law does not favor landlords in any way. Especially one messing with HUD regulations.
Do you have documented conversations (ie in writing) regarding your landlord agreeing to let you sublease...or even emails back and forth showing candidates? Would they be willing to back you up? Document like hell and keep their contact info.
If so, you've made reasonable attempts to fulfill your lease. You've fulfilled your duty. Move out, and if they dare take you to court, counter sue. If they hold your security, take them to small claims. I'm not an attorney but worked in a law firm for years and saw this pretty regularly. The law does not favor landlords in any way. Especially one messing with HUD regulations.
That's only the case if this is all in the lease. Landlords have the discretion to negotiate a more amicable agreement for the lessee...if that can't be achieved it's likely it will just revert back to the original lease agreement. You might be able to get the landlord in trouble but you'll likely still have to fulfill the lease.
Anyway, you should really look at the lease agreement to see what it actually says about this situation.
There's another side to this as well ~ it is Perfectly legal to discriminate in some very specific instances:
Property Exempt from Federal Antidiscrimination Laws
Unfortunately, not every rental is covered by the federal fair housing laws. The following types of property are exempt:
owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer rental units
single-family housing rented without the use of advertising or without a real estate broker, as long as the landlord owns no more than three such homes at any one time
certain types of housing operated by religious organizations and private clubs that limit occupancy to their own members, and
with respect to age discrimination only, housing reserved exclusively for senior citizens. There are two kinds of senior citizen housing exempted: communities where every tenant is 62 years of age or older, or “55 and older” communities in which at least 80% of the occupied units must be occupied by at least one person 55 years or older.
State law May be more strict in some cases, but there are options for a LL to deny access to someone with children.
Your landlord isn't obligated to do anything to help you here. You signed the lease, she has chosen to enforce it.
You've stated that you've been a good tenant, that may be true but is completely irrelevant to placing another tenant in the property.
LL doesn't want to put some transitory tenant in the property in the midst of YOUR concerns. That'd be my take.
I do agree that your landlord should stop beating around the bush and just straight up tell you that she wants to keep you on the hook of your lease obligations 'til it expires, but at some point YOU have to read between the lines and accept this so you can move forward on a positive note.
A lawsuit against your LL at this stage would appear to be more about hard feelings/emotion than anything else, the sooner you drop it and prepare for a better future the better off you'll be.
You seem to forget that you are the one breaking a legally binding contract. The landlord is under no obligation to help you find another tenant. Legally, she does not even have to consider a new tenant until after you vacate. There are also many exceptions to the fair housing act including local occupancy laws or HOA rules.
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