Lease not within the law new (to us) apartment?

Question

We are moving into a new apartment and we asked for the lease in advance to have time to look it over. I'm glad we did because there are several sections that are not ok according to our state laws. The state landlord-tenant law says that (at least in most cases) may not be waived by contract or otherwise. For the specific problems I have with the lease this is true anyway.

My question is #1 if I want to have the lease adjusted to reflect our states laws can they simply say we can't rent from them?

#2 If we sign the lease as is and run into problems later on with the sections that break state law and sue or are sued because of it will that stop us from getting a new place later on?

#3 If we move in with the lease as is can we report these problems somewhere?

#4 Any one have ideas of what else we can do? We can't get a different apartment this was the best we could do considering a # of factors (i.e. student loans hurt my credit rating and I won't/can't pay a huge deposit.)

Thanks

Answer 1

I find it interesting that your landlord is

ignoring state law on purpose.  That leads

them to such lawsuits.

Plz email me what specific things you have

found.  THough I can't see it as occurring,

I am wondering if the laws you have found

are too NEW to be represented in a lease.

For what it is worth, no lease can

pre-empty the law--with a small exception--

in some cases, such as zoning,

the term "grand fathered" allows one property to be treated differently than

another property--such as size, such

as sewer vs septic tank, etc.

send me a copy of the law and the

difference that is in the lease.

I will help you for free over this.

Answer 2

You should talk to the manager/LL before signing the lease.  Tell them you don't agree with those terms and request to change it before you sign.  In CA, the law LL to charge a late fee after the 1st of the month but has to be reasonable.  Charging $75 per day late is ridiculous and unreasonable.

With a shared meter, in CA, the LL still can request a charge to tenant but the law want the LL to disclose such a meter is shared. It's up to you to decide whether take it or not.

If they don't want to change the term, you must be carefully reconsider whether should rent there or not.

Answer 3

You say your back is against the wall and you have nowhere to go. THEN you talk about suing the landlord. That doesn't make you a prime tenant.

You can try this: cross out the clauses that are troublesome, sign it and send it back. Attach copies of state law showing why those clauses are illegal. Attach a nice note saying you want to make sure the lease is of very best quality.

As for shared utilities, how does the landlord propose that they be split among tenants? Do you take turns paying the water bill? Just how does that work? Cross out that clause and propose that shared utilities are paid to the landlord as a set price, or that he divides up each monthly bill by square footage of rental. Or some such.