How to terminate my lease!?

[camdin90]

Hi all, I am trying to terminate my lease as it is brand new and completely infested to with insects. They are all over the walls, in my food, dresser drawers and floors. The complex has tried spraying and baiting and they are getting worse to the point where you do not even want to lay down at night. Is the first step in trying to get out of a lease to write a letter? How is this?

July 30, 2011
Dear Solara Management,

We are writing you to inform you that we wish to terminate our lease early due to the ongoing dissatisfaction with the quality of life provided to us by Solara apartments. While we have always been pleased with the cooperation and understanding of you and the apartment management to our situation, the fact remains that the environment in our apartment is substandard, specifically with regard to the infestation of insects. Attempts have been made to bait and spray and the pests continue to multiple and grow worse, as they are now in our dresser drawers and food. It is our desire to be released from our lease without penalty due to a breach in the implied warranty of habitability. You can expect our full cooperation in showing the apartment during our remaining occupation to facilitate its immediate rental and prevent Solara from any financial losses. I hope that our immediate rental payment history and good-standing account sufficiently indicates our continued accountability and sincerity.

Again, we appreciate the attempts that you have done as property manager to alleviate our dissatisfaction but have decided that it is in both parties’ best interests for us to vacate the unit as we are unsure there is any quick fix to this problem. Please let us know the feasibility of our request and if we can do anything to make the process proceed smoothly and to your satisfaction. Also, please let us know if you would like us to speak directly with any other management parties about our request. If you would like to have anyone come look around and give you a concrete diagnosis of the pest infestation, please feel free. We also plan to have the city health department come to verify the problem and will share the findings with you. Any pictures or videos of the infestation you wish to view please just ask, we would be more than happy as we have been taking them since we first moved in and as the problem has progressed.

Thank you, again, for the consideration.

[slaine]

please answer this;
if these bugs were there the first day, why did you accept the apt?

the easiest way to remove bugs from any unit or house is "easy"--you remove everything
you own--put it into storage for 2-5 days.

put 2-3 bug bombs in the unit and spray everything [the mgr would hire this out]--
in x days the unit will be stinky as hell and clean of bugs.

then, bring in only your clothes, newly washed linen, no food, nothing you don't need and
watch for cracks, holes and places they can get in. PLUG up those holes.

luck

[thom]

Terminating a lease is not easy. There's a lot more to it than there being a problem, you writing a letter then just skating. Every town has some sort of renter's watchdog group that can help guide you through the process of settling such problems. If you can't easily find it, call any real estate office and just play stupid with them asking for this resource and they'll probably lead you to it. If you have any chance of getting out of this apartment this will be your only real legal way to do it without having some kind of judgment for jumping ship following you on your record and credit.

Like the other poster I find it hard to believe you couldn't see this coming in one way or another. Work used to move me all the time so checking out rentals became my 2nd job. You don't have to be an expert to surmise what places are going to be roach motels and what places are decent. I know craploads of people who think getting an apartment is as easy as opening the paper, choosing the cheapest place listed, going over and signing the lease then thinking they're done...all in a single afternoon. Think about it. Housing is one of your biggest expenses in life. Many people take more time debating over the purchase of a car, a lawnmower or even the pants they'll wear for the weekend! That's screwed up! I don't mean to lecture but out of all the rentals I've ever had I've never had huge regrets for things like this because I did the homework upfront and avoided the crappy places. The few issues I did have along the way were quickly taken care of by working with the landlord, by keeping in contact with them and by holding them accountable. Most are reasonable at the end of the day. Some need a little more motivation but if you show you are reasonable, willing to work with them and are not going to let something sub-par be the standard, they will work with you...almost in every case. Now, if you chose the crappiest/cheapest place around you probably also have one of the worst landlords too. They usually go hand-in-hand.