I bought a house that I would like to move into and I want to break my current apt lease for which I have 5 more (expensive) months.
I do not want to find a subletter because it's a lot of time & effort and my lease does not allow it.
There is a release clause that's basically 2 months rent, but that is way more than I'm willing to spend based on a number of feelings about this place and renting in general and I know there's a waiting list and my apt will be filled the day after I vacate it.
There is a nuisance clause in the contract but it only applies to the leasee, not the landlord. This is unfortunate because my big pet peeve with them is that for over 1 yr up until about 3 months ago the landlord's sister company would begin construction on a commercial property right outside my window 2-3 hours before the city noise ordinance permitted construction to begin every morning.
I would call the police to enforce the noise ordinance and they only did this 50% of the time, and I would incessantly complain to the landlord. The leasing office merely said, "even though it is the same owners as this apartment building, the commercial construction going on is a different company and therefore there is nothing we can do about it." It resulted in a lot of loss sleep, loss of productivity and higher stress. Even worse, the office referred to me to other tenants & occupants as the "cranky man who always complained about the construction noise" as if it were my fault that they continually broke the city noise ordinance. I'm not sure if I could use this as justification to break the lease?
I spoke with the office to find out what would happen if I vacated and they were adamant about legally pursuing the 5 months rent of the lease, and that it would ultimately go to collections and ding my credit report as I have no intention of paying it.
Any ideas? Has anyone else successfully broken a lease? How did you do so?
I've always heard that the USA laws favor tenants against landlords but whenever I try to do anything it always seems the other way around.
I do not want to find a subletter because it's a lot of time & effort and my lease does not allow it.
There is a release clause that's basically 2 months rent, but that is way more than I'm willing to spend based on a number of feelings about this place and renting in general and I know there's a waiting list and my apt will be filled the day after I vacate it.
There is a nuisance clause in the contract but it only applies to the leasee, not the landlord. This is unfortunate because my big pet peeve with them is that for over 1 yr up until about 3 months ago the landlord's sister company would begin construction on a commercial property right outside my window 2-3 hours before the city noise ordinance permitted construction to begin every morning.
I would call the police to enforce the noise ordinance and they only did this 50% of the time, and I would incessantly complain to the landlord. The leasing office merely said, "even though it is the same owners as this apartment building, the commercial construction going on is a different company and therefore there is nothing we can do about it." It resulted in a lot of loss sleep, loss of productivity and higher stress. Even worse, the office referred to me to other tenants & occupants as the "cranky man who always complained about the construction noise" as if it were my fault that they continually broke the city noise ordinance. I'm not sure if I could use this as justification to break the lease?
I spoke with the office to find out what would happen if I vacated and they were adamant about legally pursuing the 5 months rent of the lease, and that it would ultimately go to collections and ding my credit report as I have no intention of paying it.
Any ideas? Has anyone else successfully broken a lease? How did you do so?
I've always heard that the USA laws favor tenants against landlords but whenever I try to do anything it always seems the other way around.