Need to break a year lease early

Ashley2087

New Member
Jurisdiction
Rhode Island
Hello, I live in RI with my boyfriend and our young son. We live in a house with 3 apartments, the apartment below ours is the landlords grandchild who is in line to own the house. He was arrested for a violent domestic against his girlfriend. Since we moved in at the beginning of the year, they have had dangerous physical fights almost every day. This is the first time he was taken into custody for it though, several months after we moved in. This environment is extremely unsafe for our baby and ourselves and we need to break the lease and get our security deposit back in order to afford a new place to live. We have the police record of the arrest. Will we be able to legally break this lease and get our deposit back? Thank you
 
Hello, I live in RI with my boyfriend and our young son. We live in a house with 3 apartments, the apartment below ours is the landlords grandchild who is in line to own the house. He was arrested for a violent domestic against his girlfriend. Since we moved in at the beginning of the year, they have had dangerous physical fights almost every day. This is the first time he was taken into custody for it though, several months after we moved in. This environment is extremely unsafe for our baby and ourselves and we need to break the lease and get our security deposit back in order to afford a new place to live. We have the police record of the arrest. Will we be able to legally break this lease and get our deposit back? Thank you

Based on what you have posted, no, you do not have grounds to break the lease.
Also, the return of your deposit isn't immediate, so even if you could break the lease, you would still have to wait some period of time to received your deposit back.

With that said, if you are truly in danger, then the money should not be a factor. You do what you need to do in order to be safe and worry about the money later.
 
we need to break the lease and get our security deposit back in order to afford a new place to live.

If you wish to break a lease, it would be wise to read the lease COMPLETELY before doing or saying anything.

Once you've read and understand the lease, locate the section (if there is one) that discusses how to break the lease. If there is such a section, that is how you proceed to LEGALLY break the lease.

If there is no such section, you must ask your landlord if it is possible to break the lease.

One way or another, breaking a lease will require the tenant to pay the landlord some sum of money for the privilege of breaking the lease.

Most states have laws that cover breaking a lease when the tenant counters an exceptional circumstance or exigency.

Your state, RI, speaks to that very issue here:

Chapter 34-18 - Index of Sections

9-1-13

https://www.courts.ri.gov/Courts/districtcourt/PDF/Handbook.pdf





Additional information that MIGHT be helpful:

How to Break a Lease (and What to Know Before You Do It) | Moving.com
 
Will we be able to legally break this lease and get our deposit back?

No.

You can pack up and leave whenever you want but your security deposit will be applied to rent from the time you leave until the time the LL rents out your unit. You could end up owing more than the amount of the security deposit. The LL did nothing wrong to you.
 
When you reported what's been happening to your landlord and asked that he/she take action to put a stop to it, what happened?
 
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