Breaking a lease

[Sensorymama]

Jurisdiction

Virginia

Our lease is up in Feb but we just bought a house and want out now. Not for that reason though. We've had ongoing issues. Since move in I've had to call non emergency police due to noise from the guy upstairs from playing the drums at 1 am to stomping around all the time on purpose. I have a 6 yr old with autism who wakes up easily. They've probably been here more than 50 times in the last year and a half. His window leaks lots of water in everytime it rains. They "fix" it everytime but when it rains again there is a huge puddle of water. Then they replaced it supposedly which still didn't work. It's been fixed 5 times. Our bathroom ceiling caving in and falling into the bathtub 5 mins after my son got out of the bath. Mold on the windowsill from the leaking water all the time and all they do is paint over it. Fridge broke 3 times had to replace groceries each time before they gave me a newer one. Old one was 28 years old! I want out now I hate this place they won't ever fix anything. Please someone help us out. Even if we hadn't bought a house we were still looking for an out and would've stayed with family till we figured it out. We've asked corporate to let us out because of the ongoing issues but they've said no. We've never been late on rent or we never cause any issues except for the numerous complaints we make but that doesn't seem to bother them. It's a huge corporation so I doubt they would miss our rent or us. Please help us without having to pay $2000 to get out

 

[army judge]

Getting out of most leases is possible, if you're prepared to negotiate.

Yes, it costs to play, mate.

Get ready to pay, or you gotta stay.

 

[Sensorymama]

Is there a way to make it less than $2000? I'm willing to pay a little bit that amount for the amount of stress and problems we've had here is absurd.

 

[army judge]

Is there a way to make it less than $2000? I'm willing to pay a little bit that amount for the amount of stress and problems we've had here is absurd.

Yes, negotiate, that's all you have.

Be calm, explain your position, be nice, don't demand, negotiate.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Most of the time when I hear that a tenant wants out of a lease they usually greatly over-exaggerate the issues they claim. You do have quite a long laundry list of issues which you claim have not been fixed. If all of these have been documented and the issues are as bad as you say, it's possible to try a termination letter. I've seen tenants complain that they suffered too many issues with the apartment and gave notice of a material breach of the lease that the tenant has been forced to move. As @army judge has stated, you can prepare yourself to negotiate and see what corporate says after you've sent in a letter. It is highly doubtful that any landlord would simply want to allow a responsible tenant to leave who pays the rent on time even for apartments with issues. Good luck.