F/U to Neighbors - Getting Out of Our Lease?

MamatoJackson

I typed a huge message further explaining the new going-on's with the neighbors and the landlord's refusal to return my emails or voicemails and somehow deleted it.

 

In short, we want out of our lease and I feel we can do that, without repercussions, based on the "Right to Quiet Enjoyment" item in our lease.  I've never broken a lease though and want to go about it the right way.

I have all of my contact with the landlord documented, a log of the problems we are having and our failed attempts to contact him and plan to get affidavits from the other neighbors in our small complex.

Aside from that... how do I start this process? Anyone ever broken a lease before? 

lms_bride

Yes I've broken a lease.  I did it when I had to move elsewhere before my lease was up.  It wasn't a big deal.  Basically I just talked to the landlord and gave them a lot of notice.  I even offered to help find a renter if they wanted me to.  You may not have as easy an experience, but since you have everything documented you may be fine. 

I'd just start with, "due to this clause not being fulfilled, we'd like out of our contract" and then give them a reasonable amount of time (like 2 months) notice.  I wouldn't bring up all the documentation and problems unless they respond with "no" or immediately begin questioning you, etc.  

MrsRebecca

We broke our lease in our old apartment.  It was with a property management company though and not a single person landlord.

We had to pay 1.5 times our rent in penalty.

JOEBunny

We have let someone out of a lease because of a defect in the apartment, that despite our efforts, was not getting fixed.  Our take on complaints about loud neighbors in general though, is that that is a tents dispute and you need to call the police.  Legally, we cannot control another tenet, so putting us in the middle doesn't work.  I did have a landlord who evicted a problem tenet for that though, but only after 5 other tenets complained.  (our units are only 2 units to a building, and we only rent to regular working people, so we have not had this problem).

Anonymi

You may also want to see if you can find the initial contract you signed. I know that for my apartment complex, I can buy out of my lease at any time just by paying a certain amount to the office and letting them know I'm moving out. That document will probably have all the terms that you signed with but if the problem is that bad then there has to be a way out for you even if it isn't the most pleasant.

MamatoJackson

Yep - We are renting from a private owner ... he just owns this four-plex of condos we live in.

Things have gotten very bad so we're leaving.  In the process now of getting new apartment lined up and will be giving notice on June 1st.

The third item in our lease states that the lessor shall provide the lessee with "Quiet Enjoyment of the Premises," and we are living in anything but and he is refusing to do anything about it.  

So, we're out... and I have everything documented so I would looooooove to be taken to small claims court!