questions about breaking a lease, possible legal action

DigitalDuality

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 16, 2002
Messages
21,112
I'm curious as to what roads i can take. I'll give a really short over view of my scenario.

I've lived in this apt complex for a little over 2 years. I'm set to move on Nov 10th. My lease runs out on the 25th.

Here's my problems:

1. The lease was supposed to run out on the 10th, but an addition was made to the lease b/c i request figures for a 6th month lease (which i didn't take).. so i didn't get those figures before my last renewal time (the 11/10 last year) soo... they extended it to when i actually signed. I guess i'm kinda screwed here.

2. Crime. What used to be a decent neighborhood with friendly neighbors has become a ghetto. Nothing but trash walking around acting like thugs. 3-4 months ago there was a string of 15 car break ins. Both me and my sister had our cars broken into and cd player's stolen. My glass was shattered.

When my sister (a week before my break in) reported it to the leasing office (along with 5-6 other people) they openly lied about being notified about the crimes going on to every single person that reported it and stated they hadn't heard anything else. When I got broken into along with a few others... i got pissed.

I got local NBC and CBS out here in the hope that the property management would start notifying people that crime was going on and to remind them to lock things up AND in the hopes they would provide better lighting in our parking lots.. and to get the community officer involved.

Now.. my sister's has been broken into AGAIN and again the cd player has been stolen. Basically i cursed the fuck out of the complex manager today for not doing anything to better secure our area of the complex.. with at the very least better lighting.. and to complain that i've seen our community officer a number of times sitting on his fat ass 5-6 blocks away rather than near the hot spots where all this vandalism and theft is occurring.

There has also recently been vandalism to people's apartments, and recently there was a mugging that took place right outside my apartment. This shit is getting old.. and i live with 2 girls.. and i dunno, it'd be nice if they could feel safe walking back from their cars at night.

3. Which brings me to another point. The reason we have to walk so far to our apartment (mind you.. this is the suburbs.. not an urban environment) is b/c they have Reserved and Unreserved parking spots. Most of the reserved ones are taken and if you arrive later than say.. 6pm .. you end up having to park 4 blocks away (or more) and walk back in the dark (where the muggings and breakins keep taking place).

Apparently though, the towing company that exclusively comes through here doesn't really bother to check if you're parked illegally or not. About a year ago i was illegally parked and i caught them in the act of towing my vehicle. I payed them 25 bucks to drop my car and i moved it to a legit spot... only to wake in the morning and find my car gone. They took it later at 4am and i had to pay 100 bucks to get it back. They said they had pictures of my car slightly over a white line.. but i never saw them and they never provided them. 3 days after my towing i lost my job so i didn't have the opportunity to pursue this further.

4. Me and my sister are going separate ways, so while we were both applying for leases at other complexes our rent history came back all fucked up. Apparently the leasing office here kept posting our rent to the wrong account. Each month they'd send us threatening letters for non-payment and each month we'd correct their mistake.

My sister got my mother involved. So my mother went to the main office and let them have it. In the process they illegally gave my mother (non lease holder) a copy of our rent history, which violates federal laws in regards to privacy.

The end result is they did correct our rent history, after i ripped some little girl up there in half over the phone. She probably ended up correcting things that were already correct anyways. She's since been fired for releasing the rent history illegally.

5. Maintenance. I've given up (and notified the office I've given up) calling maintenance to fix leaks in our apartment. We have a 2 story apartment complex.

In my room up stairs, there's 2 areas where water leaks in when it rains. Maintenance came by to "fix" this one.. which means they painted over the water damage and left. The walls are so fucked up. You can see where they've had to replace sheets of dry wall before, and really analyzing the walls ..you can tell they've known about this problem far before we moved in.

the 2nd leak was downstairs coming from a pipe. again, first time repairing it, they guy just patched up the ceiling instead of fixing the source of the leak. 2nd time they fixed the leak.

Me, my sister, my girlfriend and boyfriend (who live(d) here against lease agreement ) have all been sick for months at a time when these leaks were particularly bad. We think (but have no proof) it was from mold in the walls.

Now for what i want... all i want is to get out of my lease early without any additional fines. I'm tired of the crime, i'm tired of the water leaks, i'm tired of worrying if my car is going to get fucked with by a crooked towing company or the wanna be thug kids that have taken over this neighborhood.

The leasing office hasn't done crap to improve the security of its tenants, they don't do crap for my leak problems, they illegally give away my private information, and they've illegally towed me.

So what chances with whatever route would i have to break this lease. I already am kicking around several ways to go about this.. but what would you do? What could a lawyer pull off? Would it be a bit tacky to tell a lawyer to just threaten them? b/c i don't have the money for a true bonified lawsuit here.

By the way, i live in Virginia.
 
You want to break the lease 11/10 and it runs out 11/25. Is this correct?

The biggest concerns in walking out on a lease are usually (1) your security deposit and (2) the landlord seeking damages for unpaid rent against you.

While landlords typically are not liable for crimes committed by third persons -- repeated and forseeable crimes which a landlord fails to protect against can potentially create grounds under which you could charge that you were constructively evicted. Are the crimes occurring on the landlord's property or in a common area?

As a sidenote -- there are legal aid groups for qualified individuals in Virgina. Here's one: http://www.vlas.org/. Also see the list of legal aid groups here: http://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/HomelessnesstoHomeownership/PDFs/Landlord_Tenant_Handbook.pdf
 
basically i'm being a bit oppurtunistic here. I don't want to pay double rent from the 10th to the 25th (i'll be in another apt on the 10th with another company).

Seeing as my lease should've been ending at the 10th, except they dragged their feet.. and seeing as they've fucked me out of 100 bucks on a car towing, and they're lack of proper lighting on their property (and yes all the crimes have been committed on their private property ) and they have probably gotten us sick via mold by having shitty maintenence .. i'm just looking to recoup a bit of my money in a round-a-bout/vengeful way.

Also i'm kinda curious what health departments i could get them on wit hthe mold thing, and is contacting something like the BBB even worth it? I basically want to come at them from every angle i can regardless if it benefits me or not.
 
Sorry to hear about your hardships, DD.

In my experience, going after the landlord for anything other than personal property damages caused by things like previously reported water leaks usually proves a waste of time, money and nerves. Even then, they like to remind you that this is what house/renters insurance is for.

Mould and leaks go hand in hand. Proving any health risks or ill effects is a drawn out process and hard to impossible if any one of you is a smoker and smokes inside the apartment. I wouldn't spend any time trying to go down that road if that's the case.

Car break-ins... they'll probably refer you to your insurance company for any compensation. Muggings... they'll likely say that you have no claim since you haven't been directly affected. in either case, the typical landlord excuse is "We are continuously striving to improve".

As rough as your experience sounds, DD, I really would advise against the vindictive mindset. The 15 days worth of double rent is a small price to pay when considering the time, energy and possible penalties spent on the alternative. I would simply walk away, pay up the difference per contract and try and get that company out of my mind. It's an expensive lesson, but trust me, it will likely come in handy for the rest of your life.

You could contact the BBB, but I doubt it would have any significant effect. This landlord probably offers appealing rent rates in your area and will therefore be in demand regardless.

I really hate to give the advice to do nothing in a legal advice forum, DD. When looking at this through cost analysis glasses though, it is by far the cheapest route to take, IMHO.
 
legal threat + FTC complaint, + BBB complaint, + EPA complaint + getting local NBC involved again + threat of taking out an ad in the sunday paper about the crime area for that complex = lease now broken, no extra fee's.
 
^
lol...nice one. bonus points awarded for creative use of an EPA complaint. :)
 
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