So here’s the very short back story. We had neighbors move in above us last spring, they have 5 very loud hyper kids. The noise is unbearable at some times. Since they have moved in we have asked them face to face to keep the noise down three or four times, we have had the police over to their apartment 3 times and we have been dealing with the district manager of the apartments for a while. All to no avail. The police won’t do anything about it, and they just get twice as loud for the rest of the night and the following day. The apartment managers arn’t doing anything to help us and asking them face to face didn’t make any difference at all. On top of this, at least 6 times since they’ve moved in we haven’t been able to get in or out of our garage easily. Twice on garbage days they decided to stack all their garbage in front of our garage. Twice we got home after work to find their grill in front of our garage which we had to move to get in, once he had his and friends motorcycles were parked in front of our garage and once I got home from work to find him changing his motorcycle oil in front of our garage. (The strange thing is, when they first moved in, they were very nice, but I think they’re just arrogant and like to think that the apartment below them (and our garage) is vacant and that they can do whatever they want). Anyways, when we signed our contract, there was a big list of rules we had to initial. The first one is “Nothing shall be done in or about the building that will interfere with the rights, comforts, or convenience of others. No television, stereos, CD players or musical instruments shall be operated in a manner that is disturbing or annoying to other residents, not shall any disturbing noises be made at any time.” We’ve quoted that rule to the district manager several times, and mentioned that they are clearly breaking it, and yet there is no change. I recently emailed the corporate office and mentioned in the email that we would like them to break our contract early. In fact we are putting in our 60 day notice at the beginning of April, so we’re already going to be leaving one month early, but we’ll most likely still have to pay for the month we won’t be there. We did casually ask about breaking the lease altogether considering what we’ve been through (and the fact that we’ve been there almost two years now), but they told us that unless they find someone to rent it we’re responsible for the entire contract. I’m thinking of just running over to my attorney and asking him if there’s anything we can do, but do you think it will help? The only problem I see is that it’s the neighbors breaking the rules, and the apartments not enforcing the rules, does the fact that the apartment isn’t enforcing them count as them not holding up their end of the contract? Or am I SOL?
IANAL but I would guess your lease doesn’t mention that the apartment complex will provide you a noise free environment. True they may have some rules for the comfort of all guests and they can choose to take action on people breaking those rules, but if those terms are not outlined within the lease they are not part of the contract. In such a circumstance i don’t believe that their action would void the contract and you’d be stuck paying the fee to break the lease.
Another thing I just noticed (although redundant), in addition to the rule I quoted above, I also found in the contract itself" …To NOT make excessive noise or engage in activities which unduly disturb neighbors…" Would be kept awake until 11:00 at night (when your trying to go to bed at 10:00 to wake up early) or being woken up at 5:30am be considered excessive noise. And like I told the district manager, we were’nt looking for them to be silent by any means, just keep the noise levels down, especially at night and early in the morning. You’d think they would at least attempt to have some respect. But they don’t seem to care.
IANALE but most leases guarantee “quiet enjoyment” which is generally interpreted as meaning the landlord has to enforce the rules and get rid of tenants that disrupt everybody else.
Your idea about running over to your attorney is exactly what you should do. Of course the apartment company will tell you you’re responsible for the entire rent. If there’s just one month’s rent in question, though, it might not be worth the legal fees.
If it works out, we’d like to break the lease as of the end of April, so we’d be getting out of 3 months rent. Our attorney charged $75 to review our offer to purchase a house and will charge $200 to do the closing, I can’t imagine he’d charge to much to look over an apartment contract and see if there’s a way out, and possibly make a call to the apartments on our behalf.
Definitely go see your lawyer; your other option is to see if your city has a free housing clinic that will give you advice. But investing a month’s rent in your lawyer to get you out of your lease early is probably a good return.
You’re right; the covenant of quiet enjoyment is implied by law; unfortunately, it has less to do with noise and more to do with interference with your possession of the apartment. Because your possession hasn’t been interfered with (just your enjoyment) the covenant likely doesn’t help you much.
Bottom line: talk to your lawyer, have him review the whole lease and write a demand letter to your landlord (using, of course, his thick, embossed and intimidating letterhead). It sounds like right now your landlord is taking the path of least resistance but if you walk away from the place without paying the remainder of the rent, the LL may wake up to the fact that these tenants are going to cost him other tenants.
Good luck.
Not only that, but they should realize that we are in our early/mid twenties, most of our friends rent as well. At some point, we’ll have friends that are thinking about moving and will ask us about our apartments, what do they think we going to tell our friends? For a newer complex that’s not at capacity yet, they need to be worried about these things. But I digress.
I’m in the same situation as you as far as breaking my lease. However, I live in a 4 apartment building (2 up and 2 down) and have lived there almost 4 years. I’m leaving May 1 and my lease isn’t up til August. However, my landlord can keep my security deposit as one month’s rent and I’m not paying one more dime. I’m giving him a month notice and if he’s on the ball, can have my apartment rented for May 1. I think that breaking a lesae is fairly common, especially in large apartment complexes. Legally, yes you (and I) are responsible for the rent until the end of the leases. But the reality is…As others have said, have your lawyer write a letter and dollars to dobuts you’ll be off the hook.
I’m in the same situation as you as far as breaking my lease. I live in a 4 apartment building (2 up and 2 down) and have lived there almost 4 years. I’m leaving May 1 and my lease isn’t up til August. However, my landlord can keep my security deposit as one month’s rent and I’m not paying one more dime. I’m giving him a month notice and if he’s on the ball, can have my apartment rented for May 1. I think that breaking a lease is fairly common, especially in large apartment complexes. Legally, yes you (and I) are responsible for the rent until the end of the leases. But the reality is…As others have said, have your lawyer write a letter and dollars to dobuts you’ll be off the hook.
Wow, peedin, that’s really bad advice. Really bad advice. Yes, the reality is that tenants break leases all the time. The reality also is that landlords file suit for the lost rent all the time, win all the time, attach tenants’ property all the time, screw up tenants’ credit ratings all the time…
It’s also (IIRC) illegal (or at least, every lease I’ve ever signed has had this rule) to just leave your security deposit as a month’s rent. You can and will get sued, you’ll lose your deposit AND rent AND court fees.
Bad advice, bad bad bad advice.
Let us know how the garnishment of your wages goes, peedin!
If it is indeed the case that you have sought remedy for some situation that makes your living there intolerable, and the landlord has refused to provide it, you’d probably have a great case to get out of it.
Be a damn shame, then, for you to lose out anyway because you decided to slink away rather than following up on the issues in an adult sort of way.
As MOST posters have mentioned, you signed the lease in good faith and it’s up to you to fulfill it. If you do choose to break it, you’ll soon find yourself with a judgement against you which will hound you for many years, screw with your credit rating and make life miserable. Further, not only will the information be on your credit report which 90% of landlords require now, but we also work cooperatively more frequently anymore and keep and share lists of bad tenants.
If you do leave early, it is the responsibility of the landlord to make good faith efforts to re rent the property as soon as possible and you can monitor that to some degree to assure that they are doing it.
I talked to my lawyer, he suggested that I put all the problems into a letter and attach copies of the three police reports (noise complaints I’ve called in against them) and tell them that I want my lease amended to terminate at the end of April, the worst that can happen is that they’ll say no, and then I’m no worse off then I am now.
Buy a set of bagpipes and start practicing. Sooner or later your landlord will THROW you out…
This is exactly right, quiet enjoyment may not be spelled out in your lease however, but is usually a part of city, county or state tenet laws.
In any case the most money you are most likely lose is any deposit or advance that you have paid. These common laws may help you to recover the money, but be aware that your land lord will most likely claim you are responsible, not matter what the case. This means if you want money back on deposits, you may be in for a battle.
Here’s a quick update. On Saturday March 12 the neighbors were very loud, loud enough that we called the police. We also left a message for one of the managers as well as the district manager and emailed the corporate office. Nothing was returned. On Monday we drove up to the corporate office and breifly described the situation to the person sitting at the front desk. She assured us that she would get the message to the VP and CC it to the district manager. On Thursday when they still hadn’t returned our message, I wrote a letter explaining all the problems that we’ve had, everything we’ve tried to do to rectify the situation ourselves, explined how annoyed we were that our messages are being ignored and that we would like our lease amended to terminate at the end of April (right now it goes until the end of July). I enclosed copies of the three police reports and dropped them off with the same person at the corporate office. I told her that no one ever got back to us from before and asked her to give the letter to whomever she gave our other message to. As of right now on Saturday March 19, we still have not heard back from anyone. So, any suggestions. Apparently calling and writing letters is getting us nowhere since they are just ignoring them. It seems to me that I have only two options left at the moment, one is to go back to my lawyer and ask for help, the other is to put in a complaint with the BBB (they are a member). Actually I suppose my third option is to walk into the district manager’s office and very sternly explain all the problmes with the neighbors and BS from them I’ve put up with say “We want our lease terminated at the end of April” and see where it goes from there.
This is exactly what lawyers were invented for. Use him.