HELP Off-campus housing problems

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I know this is not the place to seek legal advice, but I figured I’d start by seeing what CC thinks of my situation.</p>

<p>I’m a 3rd year student living in an off-campus residence at my university. It is an urban rowhouse with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, and I share the house with 3 other students. I have a 1-year lease with my landlord, from June 2008 - May 2009.</p>

<p>I have had a number of serious, ongoing problems with my residence, and would like to know if it would be possible from a legal standpoint to get out of my lease before the start of my spring semester at the end of January.</p>

<p>1) Crime - Crime has been a huge problem in the off-campus area around my university this year. Especially on the street I am on (patrolled by both city and campus police), break-ins have been rampant. I would estimate that, on an average week, 2-3 rowhouses along my street are broken into. There are also other forms of theft and vandal, including theft from cars and spray painting of cars parked behind rowhouses.</p>

<p>When we expressed concern to our landlord, he responded by having bars installed on most of the windows. Two, he claimed, were too small to be broken into. A week later, our house was broken into and robbed (with a student in the house at the time) through one of these windows.</p>

<p>Neighbors have recently had more break-ins on either side of our house, including one through a barred third-story window.</p>

<p>One of my housemates has also had his car broken into behind our rowhouse (no report filed with police for this).</p>

<p>2) Rodents - this has been an ongoing issue that culminated today and led me to consider ways to get out of the lease. Our house was unoccupied for 2 weeks while my housemates and I were home for the holidays. I was the first back to the house today, and observed a massive mouse infestation of my bedroom on the 2nd floor of the house. Mice have built a massive nest beneath my furniture, pooped and peed all over the room and furniture, and burrowed into my clothing in my dresser.</p>

<p>I have left the house as this is clearly a health hazard. There are so many mice in the room that I have no idea what to do. If there were one or two, I would set a trap and deal with it – but I saw at least 5 mice in the ten minutes I was in there. </p>

<p>I plan to call the landlord to send an exterminator tomorrow morning, but I would like to know if anyone knows what my rights are as a renter given the above circumstances.</p>

<p>What is the legal process for breaching a lease given these circumstances? My safety and health are at risk in the residence. I can put up with the occasional rodent, and with being cautious with locking doors and windows, etc, but this is absolutely ridiculous.</p>

<p>Before I contact the landlord and potentially an attorney, I’d like to know what you think.</p>

2

<p>Not sure what the legal rights are in this situation, I imagine they vary widely by city and state. You should check your city/state website for renters rights, most places have them. </p>

<p>However, it does sound like your landlord is at least making an effort to fulfill his responsibilities. It’s not his fault there is crime in the neighborhood, that’s sort of your responsibility to judge before you sign the lease if its a neighborhood you want to live in. And he did at least install bars on your windows, even if he left two uncovered, he made a reasonable effort. If you had asked for safety measures that he refused to provide, that would be one thing. But you expressed your concern, and he responded appropriately. </p>

<p>And as for the mice, if he doesn’t pay for the exterminator, then you might have a case. He should definitely have them removed, that is his responsibility as a landlord, but it may not be grounds for breaking a lease as long as he acts. Also, mice don’t usually show up for no reason, did you/your roomate leave food unsecured in the apartment while you were gone? Do you eat in your rooms and don’t vacuum up the crumbs? Not saying you’re fully responsible, but just something to think about to keep your place rat free. </p>

<p>Definitely call the landlord and have him deal with the mice. Check and see what the laws are regarding breaking a lease. You may just be able to tell the landlord you want to leave for the reasons you listed and he may be reasonable about it. Lots of landlords would rather have unhappy tenants clear out than deal with a legal dispute, especially in a college town where they’re likely to get other renters pretty easily.</p>

3

<p>Not a lawyer, but it sounds like you need to take a look at your lease. Find out what’s involved if you terminate the lease. As there may be issues doing that, consider finding another place to live regardless. You may have to pay the remaining rent, but you also need a safe place to live.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the response. Unfortunately the crime is a completely new problem that began after our lease started – the house was passed on to us from friends that had the house before, and they had zero problems with crime when they leased it in 2007-2008. They used to leave the door unlocked.</p>

<p>As far as cleanliness goes, the bedrooms (in particular my bedroom) is always pretty clean. I had vacuumed before I left. However, I had a couple boxes of candies/chocolates that were given to me as a gift, in a sealed bag, on a shelf in my closet. They definitely got into this. I mean, I can understand if a mouse or two got into it – but the fact that there are so many mice to begin with is disturbing. There is a gap between the walls and the floor throughout the house, and there are definitely a lot of mice. We had already caught 3 or 4 in the kitchen, which also stays fairly clean (no dirty dishes lying around, food kept in closed containers in cabinets, etc.)</p>

5

<p>your school might have an office of off-campus housing or Student Legal Services. If not, you can google [your city or state] landlord-tenant law and look for something generated by a legal services organization or the government. The laws vary so much from place to place that no one is going to be able to give you good advice. But the problems you’re having do sound quite serious. The first step is to do what you’ve already done and will continue to do: let the landlord know exactly what is wrong and give a chance to fix it–whether that fixing includes extermination, a rent abatement, an alternate place to stay, etc. But seeking legal advice from a licensed attorney in your area is not a bad move either. It’s always good to know your rights as soon as possible.</p>

6

<p>The landlord has the right to fix the rodent problem in a reasonable time. Crime is not his problem so long as he provides working locks, etc. A reasonable time would be having someone out to exterminate within a week. MIce want food and water. Keep that away and they will leave. That mine mean keeping all food in containers that are solid and being sure there are no leaks.</p>

7

<p>Contact your local health department. They can determine if the apartment violates the health code. That may be sufficient to break the lease.</p>

8

<p>Chris - I’m sorry for the situation in which you find yourself. I presume you mean your lease runs June 2009 - May 2010. Five months to go. It’s hard to see how abandoning the lease (legally or otherwise) works out in your favor. By all means check your lease. But I think barrons is right … the landlord is doing what he must.</p>

9

<p>You have learned a life lesson you can apply for your future places. “Pretty clean” is not good enough. Older buildings will be prone to rodents unless measures are taken to prevent this- another consideration in apartment hunting and household maintenance. One of the disadvantages of off campus housing is the need to deal with many problems not found in the on campus housing. </p>

<p>Your school probably has a site for off campus housing issues and the local government also- follow the advice already given. Learn how to deal with the systems- this is all part of the nonacademic side of life you need to be knowledgeable about. All of us have stories from our youth about the awful apts et al- one reason the place you grew up in is better is the learning curve your parents went through. College rentals are particularily vulnerable as there is a lot of turnover with naive tenants every year.</p>

10

<p>I’m confused about the date on your lease. You say you have a 1 year lease from June 08 through May 09. It is now January 2010. Did you mistype the dates in your post or are you into the second year of residence there now? If your lease ended on May 2009, you have probably reverted to a month-to-month tenancy, which generally gives you the right to move out with 30 days notice (this depends on state and local laws - I’m only familiar with Florida). I would think that to renew your lease for one more year (through May 2010), you would have had to sign a new one.</p>

11

<p>I’m assuming this is Baltimore. Sounds like most of the housing around Penn, too. Check the landlord-tenant laws. The first thing you need to do is send the landlord a certified letter outlining all the problems, asking for remedies and setting a date by which all the problems must be fixed. And read your lease carefully. Typically, you have signed away most of your rights.</p>

12

<p>Many years ago the basement apartment my husband and I rented had mice. The landlord told us, in the winter mice look for warmth. He found entry holes and nailed small mesh screens over them. He trapped the ones inside and we never had a problem again. I don’t think you will get rid of mice until you find the entry hole or holes.</p>

13

<p>I’m not discounting the grossness of mice, but I suspect you will find them in almost any apartment or house near a campus. I also know from experience that food in cardboard boxes and sealed bags will not prevent them from eating. You would also be surprised at how one mouse can appear to be many. I live on wooded land with a farm field nearby. I expect a few mice every winter when the snow falls. It’s just part of living where I do. I typically trap them pretty easily for a week or two and am done with it. Last year one avoided the traps for several weeks. I cleaned out one drawer several times from this single mouse. If I didn’t know otherwise I would have thought it was a colony. (This year all the items in that drawer are in hard plastic containers.) Once that one was caught the mess ended.</p>

14

<p>Crime
I don’t doubt that this is a serious issue for you, but it’s not the landlords problem or responsibility. </p>

<p>The landlord is legally responsible for providing you an apartment that complies with the terms of the lease and local regulations. Unless the lease says that the landlord will police the neighborhood for undesirables then you generally can’t use neighborhood issues to legally break the lease. </p>

<p>Rodents
You need to give the landlord a reasonable opportunity to address to rodent issue. From your initial description it doesn’t sound like you’ve contacted them about this yet… do this ASAP. If there is strong evidence that this was a pre-existing problem that was not being properly managed then you may be able to use this in your favor. However, in any case you can’t hold the landlord to account if you’ve not kept them fully in the loop about any issues and given them a fair chance to address them.</p>