Renter Rights – Things to do to Protect Yourself

Is there anyway to get out of a six month apartment lease if I never moved in? Keys have been returned and I am unable to move in. I live in WA state.

Thanks

I have a new owner of my building since August. They were not formerly introduced to me and we have had problems since then. They are now trying to tell us how to keep our apartment clean and they are trying to do an inspection every month. Is this legal? I live in Chgo, IL.

hello. hopefully you will be able to help me. i live in Carbondale, IL.
i was evicted from my apartment yesterday. no in’s and out’s, no partys, nothin. the story is, i ran to the store to buy some groceries. i get a call from a friend of mine who was at the apartment waiting for me to get back. supposedly, my landlord was fixing a fridge across the hall and smelled marijuana, so he knocked on the door and supposedly, my friend opened the door. the landlord then (not being invited inside) took it upon himself to step inside and kick everyone out. he then confiscated paraphenelia and a small amount of marijuana. he called the police and the police officer was hesitant to take the stuff. i talked to the officer, and he thought the landlord entering my apartment was bulls**t. i didnt recieve any tickets, so therefore no record. only the pictures and video he probably recorded.
any ideas?

hi i was wanting to know if my apartment could fine me 25.00 for putting a cigg butt on the ground!they have not ever posted anything up or talked to me about this before!also i have had nothing but problems with my apartment since i have lived here everything is falling apart.my roof in my bathroom keeps falling apart and leaking!is there anything i can do to get out of my lease because they take forever to fix the problems! thanks you

I have rented in several different apartments. I just recently signed our lease at our new place. I plan on moving in at the end of the month. I was told by the leasing manager that she would look over the lease and make sure nothing was missed. I could get a copy of the lease when we get the keys or stop by the office later. She also did not sign the papers at the same time we did. Should I be worried? I have always had a copy of the lease when we signed. A friend recommended this place. Any comments? Thanks.

I am going to sign a 1 year apartment lease today. The apt management is requiring a double deposit due to some dings on my credit report which I didn’t have a problem with until I googled the apartment and found that people posted web comments that the apartment management requires a double deposit for even people with excellent credit and charge move-out fees in excess of the deposit! Do I have a legal right to request in writing a list of any/all costs that will be deducted from my deposit at the time of move-out. And are they legally required to give me that in writing? My fear is that if I go into the lease signing tonight and seem pushy they will change their mind about renting to me and I have to be out of my current apartment by Monday!! Please advise.

Append to above……

Also, do I have the right to request to see a copy of or proof of the credit report they pulled on me? I payed an application fee that was supposed to be used for the purpose of the credit check but am uncomfortable with them charging a fee in lieu of a credit check if they haven’t indeed done one! Thanks.

I am having issues with my neighbor always calling the police on me for no reason i have requested to move to another unit but the manager told me that i should handle the problem not run away from it . Now 6 months later my boyfriend came to visit me and was arrested the neighbor called the police and said there was vandalism done to her car but i know that there wasnt . now can i be evicted for that

Is there anyway to get out of a lease if property is sold and no new lease has been given by new owner? New owner is making threats that we are going to start eviction due to weather, we are not able to catch up this month. also, was told that old owner still is responsilbe, But- old owner isn’t doing anything, he even put utilities in his name.

omg this is so fair living here is going to be a sinch

I stay Brinkley,AR and my landlord told me I got to pay him in cat if I dont If I dont pay rent exactly on time he try that with everyone and even had a baby with a hype. noone can touch him cuz he have lil money but can the law step on that

I am in an apartment in St Paul..I pay my rent on time and have been here since Aug of 06..Since moving in I have a problem with mice and roaches. I talked to other residents and they said this has been going on over a year. They are in my apartment spraying every month. I have talked to them about it many times. I even called the city inspector and he was out but I never heard what happened. Will another apartment rent to me if I break my lease. I have given them 7 months of trying to remedy this. The mice are in the walls and vents and keep me up. Any suggestions?

can i break a week old lease and will i get my deposit back..i have a roach invasion and the apt stinks bad

I have an exboyfriend who has been gone for three months.We both signed a lease together, now I need the landlord to take him off due to ex thinking he can still stay there he has no job nor is he paying for anything,also has drug problem, which landlord is aware of. The police were called and they made me leave my home and allowed him to stay there. I contacted the landlord and told him what the police did and he said it wasn’t right for the police to do that to me. landlord realizes the situation and tells me he will take ex off lease and make him leave, but tells ex in the same breath that he can stay as long as he needs to. what can I do? I’ve worked to hard to have what I have to just give it all away to a broke druggie. any legal suggestions?

i’m concerned about my landlord, Can a landlord charge you rent on a month that you did not move into the apartment, A security deposit was given in September, but my family and i did not move in until November that was when i got the keys too the apartment. Am i liable to pay rent for the month of october.

I moved in 6\2005 my lease was up 6\2006 with new management I never signed a new lease still live in apt. spouse was on lease moved out 12\2006 i’m still in apt but have to move out since i can’t afford it gave a thirty day notice to vacate haven’t found another apartment affordable yet or decent going thru divorce need more time in current apartment - haven’t been taken to court or anything - before leasing office can evict me - they would need to take me to court first right, then the judge would give me time frame to vacate is this correct-

My clothes were stolen out of the laundry room in the complex that I live in….Can my landlord be responsible?

i move from an apartment in witch i had to relocate due to my job i put a letter in to the owners of the property , however in the middle of my move the property was being sold , and the new owners would not live up to the relocation gaurantee policy. now the new owners have put that on my credit. that could not be right i know its something i can do. its all over the web site the relocation ploicy….

My fiance and I moved into a duplex and shortly after we moved in(two weeks) the roof in our livingroom and bedroom started leaking. The landlord knew of the leak and did not disclose it when we signed the lease. He repaired the roof (so he says) after the leak by himself and now we are afraid that the roof is going to leak again. If it leaks again what can we do?

I live in the city of Pgh,Pa. and I have been on my own since I was 18yrs.old.Every place I have ever moved to the places looks good until I get comfortable in the place.I have had to turn to the health dept so many times to only be disappointed due to they can only make the landlord fix visible thing.I was even told by an agency that I looked up in the telephone book to stop wasting tax payer money,tenants have no rights and find somewhere else to live.I am a tax payer and have been one since I was 16yrs.old.I need help and advice for I damaged my credit trying to keep a roof over myself and childrens head.

i need advise bad. I lived in an apt paid all my rent on time although i did have two months where there was a problem with my bank account however I did go to the office directly and pay again. I never had any cleaning charges when i moved out because I kept the apt clean and did such a good job when i moved out. I did fullfill my lease and had absolutely no problems with the complex. however now, 1 1/2 yrs after i moved out i received a call today telling me i am going to be going to court and my wages garnished for 3 months of rent they say i didnt pay. when i moved in i asked for receipts when paying rent, however they advised me they didnt give receipts. so the only proof i have is where i deducted the money for rent from my bank acct on the 1st of every month. If i was the type of person to not pay rent they would have evicted me…i dont know what my rights are and how to get all this solved since it was so long ago. i do not owe this money at all and the collections company keeps trying to get me to do a settlement…any advise??

what can i do? i was renting in a house in diamond bar from two people who i have known for a few yrs. my friends were already renting from one of their friends who was the owner of the property. I did not sign any sort of lease. I had a cat there which they knew about from the very first discussion about their two extra rooms they had for rent. i was renting from them to help them out. Upon moving in all of a sudden he was allergic to my cat and he used this as the reason for him changing locks. After making the first month rent on time, seccond month the rent payment was late by 2 days which i warned them that would be the case. he punched a hole through my bedroom door. one week later they had changed the locks and i had paid in full on that 2nd day however i was now homeless and everything i owned was completely unavailable to me. I didn’t recover all my belongings for another two months due to them avoiding my calls and lying when they said they would be home. with no access to the home I had no way to hold a job, not to mention no where to stay and sadly no funds since i paid rent a week prior. The jerks were never there when we scheduled apointments to get my things. I finally found out the contact info to the homeowner. he then informed me he was going to evict them anyways and hat they had not paid him rent in like 3 months!!!!! i want my rent at least for the 3 weeks i actually paid for and never recieved…restitution for suffering the consequences they caused would be nice i have no idea what i can even do HELP!!

I live in an apartment right now since august of 06, my name my roomates name and her dads names are all on the lease. Lately her and I have not gotten along and I’m to the point where i want to move out, how do I get my name off the lease or how should I rent out my room since I would still be responsible for the apartment since my name is still on the lease? Which would be the better way to go??? And can they ruin my credit that has been established since i moved out since I havent been establishing credit that long?

i was renting in long Island and my landlord decided to come into my apartment anytime he felt like it and then he would go through my belongings i decided to get the authorities involved but it didnt work out he had friends that were cops he would come in to my apartment any time he liked and then he would go through my belongings …………. help i think i need legal action and help with it ……….

i have lived in the X apartments in sanger since november 17 2006. 2 weeks after i moved in i had plumbing problems and water heater broke. the manager refused to fix after 4 months i finally got fed up and called code enforcement to help, instead they favored owner and told me i have to move i am a single mother that went thru a separation.fresno unified school district help me with my deposit i have 7 children it was hard for me to find a place because of my credit i had a lot of credit cards i had everything consolidated and got screwed by the person that consolidated my bills she never payed my bills and i got behind 4 months on credit cards after my separation my husband would not pay his part so i had to let all that go because i lost my job after 15 years because of my husband threatening employees and myself so for the safety of my employees they had to fire me. i collected unemployment for 6 months and after i had to get on aid. i have always worked and took care of my family. i have been on aid for 7 months and i hate it because i have a hard time getting a job because i cant afford a babysitter and my teenage boys were out of control after separation. after all this im still standing strong and trying to do the best for my children. the owner of this apartment complex will not give me back my deposit because she is mad because of code enforcement bring involved she has other units available and can transfer me to another apartment but instead she said i have to leave and she has no other apartments. i think she is being unfair because in all the months i’ve been here i pay my rent on time and i still do. i think she is really unfair. i have to use a plunger everyday and i had to buy a vacumn to pick up water because my apartment got flooded i even had to throw my beds away and my new beds because everything got wet. i turned around and bought new beds and next thing you know i had mice and rats coming in through a hole left open in the closet the mice got in to my new beds i bought for my children and at night a rat jumped on my bed with my newborn baby and i sleep. i had to go to a friends house for the safety of my children. i had fans and airconditioning running day in and day out my p.g.e. bill was 250. a month i think she should help with that because i had to leave on due to everything getting wet.i cant even shower in my own home i had to pack all my stuff and have everything on chairs on table nothing can be on the floor. can someone tell me what can i do, i really need some kind of advice i dont have the money to just go. i can barely manage. with rent light laundry diapers and clothes for my children. please what can i do?

I have been living at these apartments six months. The first incident happened when I moved in with my lights. The people came to turn my lights on and The Complex did not have a meter. After that we did not have hot running water on three ocassions. The garabage disposer broke three times and they took a long time to fix it, My cabinet needed fixing it is molded and mildew and they said they are not going to fix it. My carpet is stained was stained when i got here thay will not clean or replace it. My refrigerator was not meeting tempertature and they brought one about one week later. When I put work orders in over the phone or in person they take a long time to fix the promblem.

I had a fire in my apartment due to a grease fire while I was cooking. The two fire extinguishers provided, (1 on each floor), for 8 apts. were not charged. It spread on the cabinets above the stove and I called 911. Insurance company is now trying to sue me for over $23,000.00 and the apartment building isn’t worth that much. I think he pocketed a good chunk of that. I was notified 4 years later, 11 days before the court date. I now live several states away. I can’t get there, can’t afford the retainer fee to get a lawyer in time. I guess I’m just a simple guy and was unaware of renters insurance. Oh, I heard of it, but I thought it was to insure my stuff and I had a lot of worthless stuff. Well, not worthless, but nothing that was of significant value. I never thought of a fire. Yeah, I know,should have got the insurance. But what do I do now? I’ve already called legal aid and since I now live in another state no one will accept me for pro bono or low income assistance there ’cause I no longer reside there. And no program here are licenced for any other state except for this state.

This is in regard to my granddaughter who lives in the Penn Valley/Grass Valley area in the California Region 7. She is taking courses on line, working full time, and is trying to move into an apartment with her boyfriend. However, she has applied numerous times and has the deposit and first months rent available for the available apartment, but when she meets with them the next day they all tell her that the apartment has been rented. Just recently she took the time from work to get a cashiers check for the amount requested and then she was told that the apartment had been rented. This is her first experience with living in an apartmewnt. WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR HER?

What happens if landlord fails to give a new lease each. And the person gives a 30 days notice to move

What happens if the landlord forgets each year to give the tenanat a new lease. And the tenant jobs transfers and the tenant gives a 30 day notice to move.

This is in response to the April 7 comment. Will I receive an answer to this comment?

I live in an apartment, where my neighbor smokes. It is driving us nuts! My daughter has asthma and she gets sick. I just found out that it is LEGAL for apartment managers and owners to make the apartments partially or completely smoke free!
I will be looking for smoke-free apartments from now on
there is HOPE!!
I do belive managers have a duty to protect ALL tenants from situations that may make a medical condition worse (disabilities). Managers MUST make accomodations for those with medical disabilites:

Recently my family and I moved into an apartment while we are having a house built (our home we were in sold). Our experience started with me stepping in a HUGE pile of dog Poop. Residents are allowed pets and according to the directory they are responsible for cleaning up after their pets but this is definitely not the case. The third day that we were there the neighbors, upstairs toilet overflowed into our apartment. The office told my sister that it was a bathtub that overflowed. I had stepped in the 1-2” of water to throw towels down and clean the mess and then later in the day when maintenance had not yet returned I poked a bubble in the wall to drain the water which looked like amber colored urine. So when maintenance got there I asked what the water was from and he said that the toilet had overflowed a few times. Is the apartment complex (for health reasons) not responsible to at least tell tenants if urine and feces have possibly flowed into their apartment. It was like one or two inches of water on everything including the kids toothbrushes (got splashed). Then I go to turn on the air condition which did not work and within 5 1/2 weeks of living here I have had to call maintenance to fix the heat/air 5 times. Currently it is not working again. One of the times they interfered with something electrical that made the lights flicker and they had to come back to fix that also. We tried to open the bedroom window only to find out that there was no screen. We were promised to have a specially ordered screen within a week. We still have NO SCREEN. But, we did get a wasp nest in the window from opening the window without a screen. We have had a roach problem since moving in which come to find out according to the bug man is from heavy infestation above and below us. The manager said they spray our building once a week but how can they kill our roaches if they are not coming into our apartment? I have to keep calling every week to have it sprayed. Then my sons room was infested with ants in one corner that were crawling all in the carpet. I had to call the bug man back for that. The worst is that there are rotten window sills. My son’s room is the worst and you can just feel all around and tell that it is rotten. Not to mention that it smells moldy. It says to report mold right away. Well my husband called Monday and the property manager was supposed to get back to him about the windows… They did not even say if they would fix them and now it is Thursday with no call back. Tomorrow we have to call them back to fix the heat/air. Meanwhile, mold is an allergy for me and it puts a tightness in my chest. I really am not the type of person to complain. We came here just to have a simple, pleasant time while we build a home. This is not only terribly stressful, bad for our health, but also we lose A LOT of privacy because we are constantly having to call people to come into our apartment to fix things. I am a stay at home mom so we have to deal with them coming in whenever they show up and then we have to hold naps. It is just a pain. Is there anything we can do?
Thanks.

I been living in an apartment for 3 year from the frist year i notice in the bathroom floor water damage the tiles had to be fix cause they were damage to i told the landlord and to this day they haven’t fix and now the landlord want me to pay for the water damage i also have section 8 and have told them they said they can’t do anything what should i do from MA.

Hello to U Hopefully U can help me get a better clarification of this matter.My girlfriend and I have been living together for two years.We just recently move into a 3 bedroom duplex 2mnths ago,(it is in her name)but now she wants me out by the end of the month.It was about 2000 dollars to move,we agreed to split the cost but she only had 200 towards moving cost,I paid the rest.She can legally have the locks change and have me removed w/o paying me my money and w/o a 30 day notice to evict.Also we shared the cost of living expenses for 2 years.

What to do? My daughter went to work and when she returned found her mattress set, bedframe, clothes and carpet soaked! She contacted the management of the apartment complex and they stated that: It rained, the rain bypassed the over apartment from her, and the rain found it’s way and leaked from the ceiling to her bedroom below. How can that be? Management came in, dried the carpet (ceiling?), but did not state that they would replace her damaged property. Wouldn’t that be the management responsiblity if leakage came from the upstairs, be it rain or from a damage apartment above her? Who is responsible here?
Thanks

My landlord never gave me any type of lease to me apt. When I came through here I had asked if there had ever been a past history of any pestisides. He told me no. Then I found out later that he had sprayed for them 2 months prier and the people downstairs are finding live ones. He sent in an exsterminator and he was spose to come back to check on the place but never proceeded to do so. Also the landlord agreed to come in once a week to see how clean the apts are, he never did so. I clean everyday, take trash out, wash dishes, vaccume, never leave food out and they came back again. Is there anything I can do about my landlord?!!!!

who do i talk to about my rights as a tenant with a landlord that wants my rent but want fix my house

I have never had a problem with any landlord from whom I have rented,but some of these offences by both tenants and landlords have me so nervous that I do not think I will rent again from anyone.Some of the things listed seem downright disgusting and legally wrong. Pest control in a climate that is damp and humid can be much more of a challenge than the tenants and landlords can imagine.The close proximity of apartment living can produce some of the problems without anyone being really aware that they are all part of “pest control”.I am a registered nurse and I bring the hospital home with me so to speak, but most people are not equipped to deal with germs and pests or being demanding of their rights.This may be too much to state but if the management can see that you are overly anxious for their apartment, you are screwed before you have begun:Its like going to buy a car:
the salesperson is watching you more than you think and your negotiation for a decent price is on the line. Depending on the state that one lives in there are different agencies and laws governing tenants rights and responsibilities. Most people do not take the time or trouble to know about these before they go looking for a place to rent

i am thinking of buying a condo in melbourne lake waterford way with the intension of renting out that same condo it has three beds and three baths covering approx 2000 sq feet can you tell me if this unit would be a good purchase to make regarding the rental side of things like the size of unit the area where it is what could i charge per month any ifo you can give me i would be gratfull for thanks

My daughter is having many problems at her apartment, thr latest being a sewage pipe that broke and ruiened some of her belongings. it has been 6 days and it is still not fixed. When she calls the apartment manager she never returns her calls. Today she had to take off from work to go see the apartment manager who was going to get in touch with the owner and call back but she hasn’t. Har apartment is unhealthy to live in and we are getting no help at all. What can we do.

I’ve lived int his aprtment for 2yrs and always paid my rent on time. For the last 6months i have been having trouble with my hot water in the bathroom i told the landlord to check it and he yes but never has i called the gas company in case it was a gas leak so they send someone out and it wasnt that so they told me i should call an inspector from the city so i did. The city’