Can I break my lease before moving in?

Question

My fiance and I placed a deposit on a house to lease for 6 months, went and looked at the house, which was nice except for a slight cat-urine smell in the master bedroom. The next day we signed the lease, pro-rated from that day. That night we went back to the house, closed the windows, and went to the store to pick up some cleaners to deal with what we thought was a minor smell problem. When we came back, the entire house reeked of cat pee so badly that I couldn't stay inside and breathe, even in the living room. The maintenance man came over the next day and lifted up the carpet and the padding was severely stained. I am 5 months pregnant; I cannot live around such a concentration! As of today, we have been 'renting' the house for three days, I called this morning and asked to break the lease and the manager has not called me back yet. Am I within my rights? Is this place uninhabitable?

Answer 1

Maybe you should call the health department and explain the situation to them.  They're probably the wrong department to help you, but they'll be able to tell you what you can do.  Are they planning to address the problem or are they thinking it's your problem?  You could also call the mayor's office or city hall and ask what department handles landlord/tenant issues.

Answer 2

Do you really want to break the lease?  Or just have the carpet & padding replaced?  To be honest, the landlord should be willing to replace the carpet because anyone moving in is going to have the same issue... so if you like the place, then start there.

Otherwise, without knowing what state you're in, it's hard to know exactly what your rights are.  Try http://www.rentlaw.com/ to start.  If you haven't moved in yet, you might have additional options.

You may not be in California, but when you're renting it's always a good idea to have a walkthrough before you move in and complete a checklist like the one here (at the bottom of the page there's link for INVENTORY CHECKLIST):

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landl...

At least with a checklist like that you can document the problem and make fixing it a condition of the lease.

Answer 3

The place must be in livable conditions. They have 30 days to correct the problem or the lease it terminated and your deposit comes back.

Answer 4

If you didn't tell the manager that he needed to get new carpet before you signed the lease then I don't think you're eligible to break your lease.

It sucks, I know. I would ask the manager to replace the carpet and padding and if he won't, say you want to break your lease.