October 24, 2004
Curious George: How do I go about getting out of my lease?
(Fiance + Loto) + (4 x Jerk Roommates) = (Fiance + Loto) x Hating Life
So here is the deal: I live with four other people, and while we have tried reconciling our differences with them since we have moved in, things just keep getting worse. My fiance and I are going to continue to try to work things out, but it doesn't look hopeful. As a last resort, we are considering just giving up and finding a place together. Our lease states that we must give two months notice and two months rent to get out of it. Subletting is sadly not an option. I was curious if there were any other options, or if any simians out there had experience with this sort of thing? Help me, Obi-Won Kenobi, you are my only hope.
-
Where do you live, and how long is the term of the lease that you signed?
-
Is it possible to get someone else, a co-worker maybe, to take over your responsibility? Maybe ask your sucky roommates if they know anyone that would want to move in?
-
I live in State College, Penn. and the lease it for a year. More than likely we will just stick it out, but that depends on how bad it gets. Trying to get someone to move it won't work because it can only be inhabited by those on the lease.
-
If you all agree its not working, what about splitting the cost amongst everyone? (and someone gets a bigger bedroom, or whatever)
-
Two words: Gasoline Matches
-
Suggest you find out whether your community offers any sort of mediation services. Ask around. Might also be helpful to consult social services, guidance councilors, ministers of large churches, public librarians, someone with roots in the local communioty who may be able to advise or steer you toward servives helpful in resolving the situation.
-
Don't let the actions of your stupid flatmates drive you out. I would do my best to drive them out. There is thousands of nasty little acts which will result in your flatmates being more unhappy. An extra bonus is that the unhappier they are, the happier you & fiance will be. Sooner or later, the flatmates will have to leave. Start with some identity theft (get hold of address books and the options are limitless), maybe progress to toothbrush abuse/ food additives. Work your way up to full scale flat war. Of course, this may wreck your Karmic balance. Or your flatmates may kick your ass. Be careful. Be smart.
-
Go ahead and give notice that you're moving. The two months will be over before you know it and you'll be on with the happier life. Do you have the same problem with all 4 roommates, or are you handling 4 separate dramas?
-
Luckily, just the same problem with all four of them. If you get one person alone and talk to them about it, they claim you are personally attacking them and will walk away without even addressing what was said. If you get all four of them together they will sit there and talk about how much of a jerk/bitch you are being trying to stop them from having fun, because after all, they pay rent here too. All this is after we agreed on certain rules before we even signed a lease, since four of us were in school at the time (two have since dropped out.) Now they just lie and said they never agreed to anything. I'm just tired of living with a bunch of people acting like they are frickin' 16 year olds and their parents left them home alone for the weekend.
-
Check with your landlord and see if he/she will replace your name on the lease with that of the new tenants. The purpose of limiting residency to those on the lease is to make sure there's recourse in case of problems, not necessarily to keep you imprisioned. As long as you do the legwork on getting replacements, and so long as they're at least minimally acceptable to the landlord, I can't see why the ll wouldn't go with it.
-
Provided the landlord is getting his/her rent from someone, it shouldn't really matter who. So if you found replacements yourself that would take over the lease from you, I can't imagine the landlord would mind. Speak to him/her personally and tell them what's happening, and he or she may be willing to ignore the technicalities of the lease agreement. Or, of course, exactly what path said.
-
Thank you all for the advice, I'm going to go talk to the landlord this week about it. Hopefully it would be as easy as just getting someone else on the lease in stead of us (already know one person who would be happy to stay with these jerks.) If not, well... LOTO WILL CRUSH!
-
Two words: Gasoline Matches idiotic comment, sorry. Too much beer last night.
-
Hey, don't be so hard on your self. If talking to the landlord doesn't work, your idea was the next on the list :P Although gas is expensive right now, so maybe I will just hit them with the gas can and burn their hair off.
-
Very kind of you, loto. There's lots of wise monkey advice here - I'm sure you'll sort it out. You can always talk about things like impending fires though - convince 'em that you're crazier than they are.
-
As a landlord-in-training in NYC, I've never held anyone to their lease when they wanted to break it. It's easy enough to find a replacement for residencies. Commercial space is far more stringent due to the difficulties (i.e. renovating to specs, licensing etc.) so you will rarely find a landlord who will let a commercial tenant skip out. Due to the ease of finding new tenants, and the fact that if someone hates living in the building, they can create all sorts of trouble, like calling the Building Dept for every minor violation (and every building has lots of minor violations, my guess that most buildings also have at least one "major" violation.) Then, there's petty vandalism. So, it's usually in the best interests of both parties to part (semi)amicably. I'm sure that if your landlord has been in business long enough, he'll be receptive to your needs (unless he's an a-hole). The roomate situation complicates things a bit, but I've found that no one (landlord or roomates) can really force you to stay anywhere you don't want to, without at least the expectation of legal or non-legal repercussions