How is the process going to work? Are you going to get approval from the landlord before doing repairs? What if he thinks that you overpaid? What if he thinks that the particular item being done doesn’t need fixing?
Is there a mortgage on the place? Who is paying it? What if the landlord decides to sell?
Who said I didn’t have an oven? I said the stove doesn’t work. They are two separate appliances in my kitchen.
Finding an apartment is much easier than breaking a lease. Considering the OPs description which do you think is more likely: that the landlord will jack up the rent or boot him out or that a pipe will burst, roaches will move in, the roof will leak or another appliance will break down?
If either one happens, which is a more severe consequence: having to locate a new apartment on 30 days notice or having to pay rent for 6,8 or 10 months on a place that might not be livable an being unable to move to a new apartment. Contracts almost always exist to benefit the provider, not the customer.
Tenants Rights laws in most cities and states are a complete joke. It’s wisest to avoid them at all costs.
We just bought a house and moved out of the apartment we’ve lived in for eight years - the last seven of which were month-to-month. My thoughts on leases are much like Omniscient’s: When the initial 1-year lease expired (way back in 2002) and we automatically transitioned to month-to-month, I was a little happier.
Sure, our rent went up a few times, but I’m confident that this would have happened even if we’d renewed one-year leases every summer. It was particularly helpful once we started looking for a house to be month-to-month; we gave our thirty day notice shortly after closing on the house - it would have sucked to have had to break a lease (and potentially pay many months’ rent on a place we were no longer living in). As it was we could search for a house at our leisure, and didn’t feel pressured by a lease renewal schedule to move on one that wasn’t quite right.
Yes, we were at risk of being evicted with thirty days’ notice, but (a) we judged it unlikely to happen, and (b) we’d have been able to deal with it if it had. Month-to-month still seemed better than being locked in.
I am a lawyer. . . in my own mind when I play Law and Order with my dog after long nights of drinking. So, yeah, not legal advice. Unless you’re my dog. In which case-- DUH DUH.
Anyway, just send an email and be upfront. “Hey, since I kind of don’t have a stove, among other things, I’ve been looking into other places to live. One of our neighbors has a place for rent and said they’d be happy to rent to me, but- truthfully- I’m not terribly unhappy here. Could we maybe work out fixing the few issues around the house? If not, which I do understand, I’m going to have to move. I think our relationship has been great thus far, though, so hopefully we can work together to make this place great!”
A few thoughts…
(1) You have an oral lease for a periodic tenancy (month-to-month). Accordingly, the termination of the lease must conform to Maryland law regarding the termination of periodic tenancies. But he probably won’t sue you for rent if you don’t.
(2) Baltimore probably has a housing code that regulates properties being let for residential occupation. Chances are that you can abate the rent for the cost of bringing the property up to code (although that likely does not mean you can deduct the cost of a stove, and certainly not a W/D). In particular, Omniscient’s worry that you have to pay rent on an uninhabitable property is completely scotched by the doctrine of constructive eviction (and his comments about municipal tenant ordinances is surprising, given the Chicago has a very tenant-friendly one).
(3) Repairs you make that cannot be easily detached are fixtures and the departing residential tenant is not permitted to remove them at the expiration of the lease. Obviously, then, these leasehold improvements will benefit the owner more than you.
(4) I don’t think a stove or a W/D is a fixture if the appropriate hook-ups are in place. You could buy these appliances and take them with you when you move out.
(5) Silence can sometimes constitute acceptance, pace some of the remarks above. E.g., ProCD v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996). However, you’ll notice that case was litigated up through the United States Court of Appeals. I imagine you’d like to keep your dealings a little less litigation-inviting, in which case, you should avoid the silence-as-acceptance strategy and try to get him to agree actively and in writing. If you cannot, you might need to move into the new place.
I know people who have tried to break leases and I’ve dealt with the Tenants Association and the laws are a complete joke. There is a Tenants Bill Of Rights which gives a tenant some protections but the burden of proof is on the tenant in all cases. It’s very difficult to “prove” that a place is unlivable and the laws are extremely open to interpretation. Unless there’s a clear violation of building codes, for which you need to have an inspection to confirm, you have no leverage. Additionally the landlord is allowed many weeks in order to fix the problem and so long as he tries, no matter how half-assed, the law is on his side. If if you can prove there is a violation that justifies breaking a lease it will take 2 months at minimum to get any results. In most cases it take 3 to 4 months to even get a city inspector on site.
Additionally, just about every single lease I’ve signed has a provision by which the landlord can terminate the lease for any reason with only 30 days written notice. You can be booted on short notice lease or no lease.