How can I break my apartment lease without penalty?

Question

I have had nothing but problems since I moved into these apartments, once I discovered mold on my ac unit I called a mold inspecter who is certified by the state. He found harmful mold growing on my ac unit due to a leak. I informed my managment company in writing and had them sign and copy the information I gave her, so I have proof. Now the maintnence man came into the apartment and cleaned only half of the mold and taped the leak. When I push on the tape water just drips out. Please help me I have a 9 month old who has been put on breathing treatments and I am getting sick myself. How can I get the heck out of here without them taking me to court. I want my deposit back too...

Answer 1

Which is more important - your health or the money.

Move now.  If he takes you to court counter sue.

Answer 2

i don't know where you live but if you happen to be in chicago theres a service that is a non-profit organization that help tenants. Unfortunately land-losers have rights over tenants. It takes alot of paper work to be able to legally do this. I know because I had one of those land-losers. He rented a two bedroom as a three bedroom and the third bedroom had the furnace in the room COMPLETELY ILLEGAL. We had a broken window that was supposed to be fixed bf we moved in. Never happened...we had screws coming up from the floor boards...were also supposed to be fixed...never happened. All these promises were made to be done before move in and nothing. Compile a list of all the things wrong with the apartment. My list consisted of 50 things, some that I noticed right away and others that I had no idea were illegal. My situation was a great learning exp. considering it was my first place. But look up Tenant Rights Companies in your area and see what they can do.

Best of luck

This is definatly one of the hardest things to deal with.

Answer 3

You do not indicate in which state you live.  In MOST states, AC is not considered a requirement of habitability.  Hence, if use of the AC is causing the mold, the landlord can simply disconnect the AC and your mold problem is gone.  Is that REALLY what you want ?  If your lease does not indicate that working AC is part of your agreement, this is exactly what can happen to you.

I suggest that you attempt to work with management a bit more to help eliminate this problem.

Answer 4

Call the local health department and have them inspect the apartment.  If it is unhealthy, have them certify it.  In most jurisdictions, that will allow you to break the lease without penalty - check with the health department to check on the local regs in your area.

Answer 5

You've already done the right thing. Everytime something happens in that apartment, document it. You have to have proof that living there is a health hazard. Once you have that proof , then your landlord will have no other choice but to release you  from the lease. Let him know that if he doesn't let you out of this lease properly, then you will have no other choice but to take him to court, and believe me, no landlord wants to go to court with their name dragged through the mud and being labeled as a slum lord. No one will want to rent from him then. Good Luck!

Answer 6

The landlord has either  a specific amount of time to repair the issue or a reasonable amount of time depending on your state's landlord tenant laws.

Maintenance may have only cleaned it and taped the leak temporarily until a proper repair can be made.

You cannot just break the lease because you feel the issue is a health hazard, you must call in the local housing inspector to give that opinion.