Yikes! You’ve found yourself in a situation where you are really steamed at your landlord. Not only is the guy a real jerk, but he’s not fixing things and the apartment isn’t quite as you believed it would be.
Just because a landlord is obnoxious or not doing things the way you think they should be done, however, doesn’t mean you have the right to break your lease.
So, in what circumstances can you break a lease? The law varies by state, according to Erin Leigh with 407apartments.com, an apartment hunting service for the Orlando area, but here are a few that she noted generally apply to most cases:
If this isn't your car, but this is your apartment, you can very likely break your lease.
Serious damage. If your apartment becomes seriously damaged to the point where it is “uninhabitable,” you generally have the legal right to break your lease. However, you can’t be the party responsible for causing the damage. Natural disaster, crime, or someone else’s accident are valid reasons for breaking a lease.
You are called to active military duty. In many states, you are allowed to break your lease when you discover you are deploying for military duty or are relocated for your position. However, you must have signed the lease prior to learning about your relocation.
Your health has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. In some but not all states, you can break your lease without penalty if you suddenly become afflicted with a very serious health condition. The rule may also apply if you suddenly need to move into an assisted living facility.
Your landlord fails to meet the obligations required by law. If you make timely requests for a needed repair and your landlord constantly ignores you or delays making the fix, you may be able to break your lease. However, you should have documentation that you have made these requests and have sent them by certified mail to ensure your landlord receives them.
Article comments
1 - anthony b
i found bed bugs that have been there before i moved in ive olny lived in the place 4 days out of 19 what can i do i dont want to live there
2 - brenda stovall
what if someone breaks into your premises and you feel your life is endangered
3 - Carlos Phelps
I'm wanting to break my lease for mutiple reasons. We have only been here for about 2 1/2 months but have had problems from day 1. It started with no hot water for the first 4 days. The apartment was re-done (from previous tenants) very sloppily. Whole place needed to be re-caulked, counterops torn up, missing pieces if tile, toilet not working etc. I took pics of everything. Problems with young punks around here that have taken our laundry out of a washer and shoved it into a hole in the wall, take notices off our door crumpled them up and throw them on the ground. This stems from the fact that we stood up for ourselves and told them things...for example not to sit in our patio wall, not to bounce their ball against our wall, and so much more. BEDBUGS....this is the worst. We moved into bedbugs! Took weeks to finally get our subsequent treatment. Our kids have been hit mutiple times with rocks by the other kids in the complex. Our upstairs neighbor does not follow the 10pm noise ordinance. The pool is always padlocked especially on the weekend. Recently they changed the laundry room door and passes out keys but the key doesn't work and they locked the door yesterday so it couldn't be used. The entryway light on our building has been out for about 3 wks and hasn't been fixed even though I've reported it. It's so dark I have to find my key before I get to my door so that's unsafe. I have made multiple complaints. A week ago after once again complained about an issue the manager asked if we wanted to possibly move to a sister property. I told her yes. she said she would get me a list and that still hasn't happened. So done!