How to get out of a lease

[EmilieMadison]

What kind of issues have you had? Depending on the things you've requested, you may or may not have cause to get out of the lease. But of course, this is all dependent on your state's landlord/tenant laws. Where do yo live?

I have to be honest, though. I have to wonder, if you've made a request on average every 2 weeks since you moved in not quite a year ago, either you are really nit-picky, or you live in a place that's borderline inhabitable and have put up with it. Maybe I"m just getting the wrong picture from your post...

[Jalapeñomel]

I think the cosmetic things will not count. It's really hard to break a lease without financial penalty. Good luck!

[Jalapeñomel]

From my experience washing machine, fans and dishwasher are not considered items that "have to be serviced."

[Deleted]

What state are you in? It will depend upon the Landlord Tenant act in your state. The mold mentioned raises my eyebrows. How quickly was this addressed and is it still present? If so, this could be a breach of the contract.

[hubes]

Where is the mold?

[cahabalily]

I have industry experience. No one here can help, laws vary down to the county level; however, most states have laws that allow a broken lease for uninhabitable premises (mold). If you out right break the lease, expect to be on the hook for rent until a new tenant moves in, but not after (another very common law)

[hubes]

I doubt they will let you out over shower mold and a broken dishwasher.

[pinkplasticdoll]

I will take mold and a broken dishwasher over roaches. wanna trade?

I would just read your lease paperwork closely. We have a separate document specifically about mold and that they will take care of it in x amount of time and if they dont then we have options of what we can do, they take that stuff seriously where I live.

[Jalapeñomel]

I had a closet full of mold that ruined everything we had in there plus in the shower. We were unable to break the lease, unless we wanted to go to court (and financially we couldn't do it).

Oh and the toilet was sinking into the basement.

[mrsjuleshs]

it is REALLY tough to get out of a lease here without paying. My BFF & I moved into an apartment once that ended up flooding 3 days later due to the windows not being sealed. I had a waterfall coming down my dining room window. After calling management constantly, they finally sent someone out 3 days later to inspect. In that time we found mold along the bottom of the baseboards that the carpet was hiding. When they finally came to do repairs, they had to replace the bottom 3 feet of sheet rock. There were water lines on the insulation, which they left, and 2 support beams had rotted away. We also found nasty mold on the other side of the wall next to the dishwasher. They refused to do anything about this. We all ended up getting sick because of the mold. We high tailed it out of there and reported them. The housing authority did nothing even with photo evidence and believe the complex when they said we were just trying to get out of our lease. That stayed on my credit report for the full 7 years.

So unless you can prove that the place is not safe or that it is in deplorable, unsanitary condition, it will be a hard case.

[kellbell191]

I agree that it will be hard in a large complex, especially if they have vacancies. We were able to break a lease early with a private owner b.c. I had to move for work and we found new tenants. How much longer is your leasE?

[kellbell191]

I've also had to live in a place with a mold issue and wasn't able to break the lease. That bitch sat vacant for 6 months after I moved out. What a hole.

[mrsjuleshs]

It is just about cheaper to buy down here than it is to rent.