Can I break my Lease?

Question

I signed a 1 year lease to the apartment I am currently living at. I moved into this apartment because it was in good neighborhood and I needed to move out of my mother's house quick and it was close the babysitter's house.

At first I have to say I was skeptical about the apartment but I stupidly signed the lease because I felt I was able to deal with some of the ****. Now I really can't. My Landlord is a real a*****e

There is dog **** in the front Lawn and he doesn't want to clean it. I understand that it's the pet owners job to do it. But I dont have any pet's and it should not be my job to do it. We even got a notice on our door from the city if it was not picked up they would get a ticket. My landlord said that it was not his responsibility that he was not going to pick up the f***s nor pay the ticket.

The lease also states there is central heat and air. There is no air! and it cheeses me off because I have 10 month old baby. So i had to pull 100 dollar out of my *** to buy an air conditioner.

One day I misplaced my front door key and had to open the one in the back since there is no gate blocking the ganway to the alley 2 dogs were in yard and alley cats are just roaming around the freakin building.

There's a huge hole in the floor in the garage covered by a big piece of wood. The window in the garage doesn't close so there cat's as well in the garage.

So yeah call me stupid for signing this lease I still have about 9 months left on it.

Can I get out of the lease?

What steps do I need to take?

Answer 1

Who cares about the p**p? The landlord gets the ticket, not you.

Tough luck about losing your key, but you need to cat Animal Control about the dogs.

Call the ciity/county about the garage.

The only actionable gripe I see is the a/c. You should have been submitted a written request for repair to the landlord with a (properly researched) threat to have it fixed and deducted from the rent. Until he has formal notice of non-functional a/c you have no way out of this lease.

Answer 2

I don't think you can get out of the lease for the stuff you state.  Maybe for lack of air conditioning you would have some recourse but you would first have to give the landlord an opportunity to remedy the problem, and since you already bought a new ac unit, this is really a non issue now.  Maybe you could secure the place yourself against the animals a bit (put something over the garage window).  

Also, whoever put that ticket on your door, I'd call them and complain loudly - since the landlord has not fixed the problem.  They will keep ticketing the landlord and eventually he will get the idea to fix the problem.  

Beyond this you may have to just live with it for 9 more months.  You could simply break the lease but expect to be sued for unpaid rent and have your credit badly hurt if you went this route - its probably not worth it.

Answer 3

No, you can't get out of your lease.  You answered your own question.  You jumped in WAY too quickly without observing what was going on.

You MIGHT have a case with the air conditioning.  Since the lease indicated that air is included and it's not there, you have a right to air conditioning.  However, that's not an excuse to break the lease.  You have to contact the landlord to provide the air conditioning.  If he provides same, he is now in compliance.

Live out your nine months gracefully and then get out of there.

Answer 4

You really need to check your local laws.

Here is Arizona law.

You send a certified letter to landlord stating the ac is broke.

If he fails to fix it within 10 days, you have it fixed and deduct from rent.

If it is going to cost 1000's to fix, then you go down to your Small claims court and file a breach of contract.

The other stuff will not get you very far.

Keep your rent current.