Breaking a lease with apartment owners. Am I in the right?
July 28th, 2013
I have been leased an apartment for 8 months. It’s been 3 months since the start. I have some noisy people upstairs. They stomp when they walk and they are super noisy really early in the morning. My apartment complex has a 9pm-9am no noise policy, And the people upstairs start at 4am in the morning. and start back up around 10-12 at night with noise! Told the office about this and they said that they were going to talk to them about it and “put it on file”. The lady said that she talked to them and she agreed to tone it down and follow the 9-9 policy. I have complained about this 4-5 times after that about the same noise. I talked to the front office lady and I told her specifically that I wont be liable for charges because THEY are being really noisy. They are the ones that are making me want to break the lease because i can’t sleep and I got work early in the morning! 5am to 8pm is my work hours. She agreed that i shouldn’t be liable for any charges.
On Saturday (3/3/12) at 12 at night, I started hearing the lady cursing, banging and throwing stuff around, then i heard a little boy crying and the lady was screaming at him. I heard a big bang and i heard more crying. Thinking that she was beating her kid, I called the cops and said what was going on. They right away came, sirens hot. Came and knocked on her door and I heard like she locked her son in the room.
I guess they told them that everything was fine. As soon as she closed the door, she started to stomp on the floor on purpose. She stomped all around the living room went down to the kitchen, the hallway, the bedroom and the bathroom. She was stomping so hard that she was shaking the blinds on my sliding glass door and my 55″ flat screen TV was shaking from the wall mount! That went on for about 10 minutes. Then it all went silent.
The next morning, around 8 am, The lady went up the stairs to her apartment and stomped the way up and stomped all around the floor and woke me up. (Thank god it was Sunday!) It was so loud it sounded like she was damaging the floorboard some more from last night. Obviously she was doing it on purpose. She doesn’t give a damn! The office lady said that she was going to call the people to see if they heard anything. She said it like if i was telling stories about everything. Yeah, Like I’m going to call the cops because I decided to make up something about a lady beating her kid. Like if I’m trying to find an excuse to break my lease and making things up.
Today, I went to go talk to the lady in the office and i told her that I want out and I’m ready to break the lease. She flat out told me that she needs to call the corporate to see if they are going to approve it and that they might charge me for breaking the lease. But then i told her about the time that she said that I wont be charged! i told her specifically, I’m going to move out Wednesday (3/7/12) and she said Don’t do that.
Another issue that i told her about is, We have a small patch of grass in front of our apartment that is “Our space” so she said. The guy upstairs (The same noisy people) smokes over my small space, and throws it over. 2nd time i complained about the noise, i told them about that. Well it also isn’t resolved. He still litters on my yard after the lady said it was resolved that they would agree to not do that anymore.
Another thing, there were spiders that were coming into my apartment biting me at night while i was sleeping in bed. They said they would call the pest control. They came and sprayed everywhere. Spiders came back and they treated again. after twice of treating them, 3 days later i see more spiders. They said they sprayed the whole apartment, the problem was fixed. I saw two spiders fighting on my living room, and five days later another spider but it was in my kitchen. So much for treated apartment.
I want to break the lease and move out, But she keeps on saying that i will be charged for breaking my lease. Should I be the one that should pay when they were the ones that said everything was resolved that they “promised” that they would stop. SHE even said that i wouldn’t be liable for the costs of breaking my lease, and now all of the sudden I’m going to be charged for something that I have no control over, but they said that they resolved it and everything was under control the past few times? If the people didn’t listen the first time, what makes them think they are going to listed a 6th time?
Thanks for your help!
Two questions:
In what state / province / territory did these incidents occur?
Did you sign anything? If so, what exactly did you sign (what does the agreement say about e.g. premature termination of the contract)?
Moved from Serious discussions to Helpdesk.
SD is more for debate than for advice.
Helpdesk is for any kind of help, not just tech support.
The only way to do it in the US it to reach a mutual agreement or take it to court.
Chances are if their lazy, and you evacuate and don’t leave a big mess they will be to cheap to go to court.
My apartments were so systematic, I told them I would pay them in 1 week, they said were going forward with the eviction, so I said fine then, your screwing your self. SO I got that month, plus 2 more months for free, all they can do is sue you. Now they have a piece of paper saying I owe them money, lmao!
you are about to learn an important lesson here. anytime you do anything with something you sign, you want to make sure you have everything on record. from now on anytime the noise starts coming on start recording it either on video or audio(video much better). next time you go to the office, write a letter and complain rather than talking to them. once you hand in the letter ask them to sign it. give them a copy and keep the original. when times comes that they break the law they will back out easily because if you take them to court you have evidence that you can prove that you did your part to stay as much as possible on your contract and when they didnt solve the problem they are the ones who are not following their agreements.
good luck
cometbah replied: Two questions:
In what state / province / territory did these incidents occur?
Did you sign anything? If so, what exactly did you sign (what does the agreement say about e.g. premature termination of the contract)?
Hello! I live in USA, Stockton, California and where the apartments are located in as well.
Up to this point I have signed nothing that mentions that I ended the lease prematurely. The only thing that was signed between me and the property owners was the initial lease.
SmAsHeDr replied: The only way to do it in the US it to reach a mutual agreement or take it to court.
Chances are if their lazy, and you evacuate and don't leave a big mess they will be to cheap to go to court.
My apartments were so systematic, I told them I would pay them in 1 week, they said were going forward with the eviction, so I said fine then, your screwing your self. SO I got that month, plus 2 more months for free, all they can do is sue you. Now they have a piece of paper saying I owe them money, lmao!
By Mutual agreement, what do you mean?
I’m basically vacating myself, I told her i was going to move out with all my belongings Wednesday of this week, and she said to not do that. Everything is still the way it was left (Kept the carpets clean, etc) Hell, I even cleaned up what wasn’t done when i first looked at the place!
My friend says that if they sue me I can surely fight it and not pay any money because it was really my fault. They were the ones making noises, I was happy up until they came. Why stay in a place where you’re not happy? When it’s costing me sleep because the people upstairs DON’T work but I do.
Yeah, I’m currently not paying for this month I got a little notice on my front door that says “Pay or quit” in the next three days me: “LOL nice wording, Didn’t I say that I was going to leave Wednesday?”
Saied45 replied: you are about to learn an important lesson here. anytime you do anything with something you sign, you want to make sure you have everything on record. from now on anytime the noise starts coming on start recording it either on video or audio(video much better). next time you go to the office, write a letter and complain rather than talking to them. once you hand in the letter ask them to sign it. give them a copy and keep the original. when times comes that they break the law they will back out easily because if you take them to court you have evidence that you can prove that you did your part to stay as much as possible on your contract and when they didnt solve the problem they are the ones who are not following their agreements.
good luck
Thank you. The only bad thing is that they have quite down because they knew things were getting serious now, but I have just had it. What guarantees me that they would be quite a couple of days from now, you know?
I have a recording that my sister recorded went hey were being loud and basically stomping around. I mean, I get it sometimes apartments aren’t going to be quiet, but this is ridiculous!
Bioshock.Rocks replied: cometbah replied: Two questions:
In what state / province / territory did these incidents occur?
Did you sign anything? If so, what exactly did you sign (what does the agreement say about e.g. premature termination of the contract)?
Hello! I live in USA, Stockton, California and where the apartments are located in as well.
I have not much time at the moment, but a rough outline for California laws:
– Landlord must give 60 days advanced notice to terminate agreement if you have lived there for at least a year; 30 days if less than a year
– For the landlord to forcibly evict you, the landlord must file an unlawful detainer lawsuit with the superior court. In that case, you will be served (i.e. get a legal document delivered to you) and eventually go to court. If landlord wins, eviction process begins and landlord can be awarded all your unpaid rents plus up to $600
– The landlord cannot evict you as retaliatory action. If a landlord seeks to evict you within 6 months of you exercising a tenant’s right (e.g. complaining about apartment condition), it may be ruled to be retaliatory in nature.
– In order to end your contract, you must give the landlord advanced written notice equal to the duration of one rental period. For example, if you rent on a month-by-month basis, you must give a month of advanced notice.
– The previous point can be overridden by a private, legally binding contract. For example, if you signed something that says you must give 365 days of advanced notice, that overrides the state law of 30 days even if you rent month-by-month.
– If you paid deposit, landlord can keep it for unpaid rent.
– If you paid deposit and the landlord has stated that it functions as ‘last month’s rent’, you may use it as the last month’s rent.
– If you paid deposit and the landlord did not state that it functions as ‘last month’s rent’, you must pay last month’s rent, but are entitled to reclaim your deposit.
I suggest the following actions:
1. Produce a WRITTEN notice of intention to end tenancy and give it to your landlord ASAP. This way, even if you lose in everything, you would only have to pay another month’s rent.
2. Look up the tenancy act(s) of your state (names of act(s) vary). Read through them carefully. This will be helpful in the future as well.
3. Post more details, if you want, about whether you signed a legally binding contract with the landlord, and what it contains.