Breaking Lease (apartments, inspections, record, legal)

[liz2829]

I have a friend in Vogue Apartments in Fort Myers Fl. Friday afternoon the city turned off the water for nonpayment. Her water is included in the rent. The city says they posted posters of turning it off. The mangement took them down. The billing company is refusing to have account with them. No managment. The water did come back on sometime around 10 Friday night. Seems werid nobody was told it had been turn on or off. There are rumours flying too that they are in serious violations on code and planning on moving the tenenants to another complex. She wants out of the lease. She called the housing authority and was told not their problem to contact managment. It is private own and no management can be found. Any advice on can be done.

[Ultrarunner]

She needs to pick-up a 30-Day Notice from the Housing Authority, fill it out and get it to the property owner and a copy to the Housing Authority... The name of the owner or management company is on the bottom of the Housing Assistance Payment Contract (HAP) that was signed at move-in. Public records will also show to whom and where the tax bill is sent.

30-Day notices only work after the first year. Has she lived there with a Section 8/Voucher for more than 12 months?

If she has lived there less than a year, she will need the Owners permission to Break the Lease. An Attorney or Legal Aid might be better able to persuade the owner to see your friend side of things.

Your friend risks loosing her Housing Certificate if she moves without following prescribed HUD procedure.

The Housing Authority has the power to "Abate" rent for a unit that is not habitable. HUD Regs state that Abated Rent cannot be recovered by the Landlord unless an error was made.

HUD guidelines state the habitability violation must be documented and the owner must have a reasonable time to correct, reasonable depending on the severity of the violation, before the contract can be cancelled.

I doubt HUD will consider no water on one occasion for the better part of a day sufficient grounds to abate rent. Of course it is entirely different if no water is a reoccurring problem.

HUD must inspect each unit at least once a year... what do the previous HUD inspections state regarding unit condition and deficiencies?

Code issues are enforced by the city or county and normally separate from HUD habitability issues.