Roomate Co-tenants participating in criminal activity, landlord refusing to help

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Apropos92

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I have a rather complicated problem. I live in student housing offcampus, where each of 4 tenants is on a seperate lease agreement. As part of the lease agreement, we each agreed to uphold the law, and also, not to have unregistered tenants in the apartment. Here are the issues:

Tenant 1 has a boyfriend who has been given a key to the apartment and comes and goes as he pleases. He cooks in the kitchen, does his laundry, and generally behaves as if he lives in the house.

Tenant 2 smokes meth and marijuana three times a day every day. She refuses to lock the front door, and has numerous friends who come and go as they please. I have caught one of these friends repeatedly stealing my food, kitchen knives, etc, and using my blender and other personal property I leave in the kitchen and living room.

Tenant 3 also participates in the drug use, and additionally plays loud music every night making it impossible for me to sleep (i sleep with earplugs and can still hear the music)

Tenants 2 and 3 have a guy living on our couch. He is asleep on the couch when i get up in the morning, and occupies the living room all day so nobody else can use the living room, or take his bed at night. He keeps bags full of his property in the living room, and has not left the apartment in 3 weeks.

Tenant three has a pet rat wich escapes on occasion, and is actually suspected to be hiding in my room at this time. Rats are needless to say not allowed in the apartment, and certainly not in my room.

There are numerous ways in which all three are in breach of their lease agreements. All the apartment complex has to do is come here and inspect the place. I'll let them in the door, but their response, we can't enter apartments without the permission of the tenants.

As these people are drug users, and criminals, I am unwilling to confront them about these issues, I feel absolutely unsafe in the apartment, and cannot safely stay here by myself.

I have detailed these issues in a certified letter sent to the apartment manager, his response, we can't do anything without proof. IE, I am expected to live in an unsafe apartment, exposed to rampant drug use, rodents, and multiple illegal tenants. I am not paying for an unsafe apartment, and I did not sign a lease for six to seven people. As far as I am concerned, the landlord has an obligation to me to remove the unauthorized people from the apartment and address the drug issues. A letter to the tenants might be sufficient, but he is not even willing to do that. he won't come to the apartment to see the guy living on our couch for himself, he won't do anything at all.

How do I proceed, and is there anything i can do to get out of my lease, or get the illegal tenants out of this apartment? In order to get out of my lease, I have to pay and I'd be in breach of my lease. As my mother co-signed, I can't do that to her credit, and I can't afford the penalty fee to get out of my lease contract anyhow. Even if I did, since this is a college town, there is literally no place to move to. I've started looking around for other apartments, but there is nothing available even remotely close to my budget. The landlord does not have any other apartment rooms for me to move into, so I'll be stuck with these people at least until the end of the semester when new rooms and apartments become available.
 
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You have a choice - you can stay or move. Have you discussed the problem or sent certified letters to your co-tenants? Have you called the police, either in your name or "anonymously?" Roomate situations are always messy. Chances are that leaving will be your better option if you cannot be appropriately confrontational. You can't just use the landlord to be the only source of confronting your roomates about their bad conduct.

I haven't seen your lease so I can't know for sure what rights you may have - or may not have against the landlord. It's possible you could withhold your rent and send a letter to the landlord that his failure to enforce the terms of the identical leases has resulted in a material breach of your lease agreement by the landlord and forcing you to find a new residence as early as possible due to safety concerns. You may also sue for the landlord's responsibility for you incurring additional expenses due to an unforeseen and expedited move. This may get you out of any problem with leaving the lease before it's terms and any amounts the landlord may claim that are owed. Chances are, from my experience, that if your lease reads as you think, the last thing a landlord wants to do is go to court - but be prepared to have some proof other than just you "think so." You need to do things to protect yourself and your interests. Best of luck.
 
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