Personal issues not legal grounds for breaking lease
Author: boored
Category: Real Estate
Q: I was renting a room in a home but I have since had to move. I have been going through some tough times (anxiety, depression, etc.). The living conditions were unhealthy for me so I am now stuck trying to find someone to sublease my room. I simply can’t afford to pay rent at two homes. Is there any way to break a lease in this type of situation?
Property manager Robert Griswold replies: While it is understandable that your personal issues are serious challenges for you, they are not legal grounds to terminate your lease.
You have a business relationship with your landlord and a contractual responsibility to meet regardless of your personal situation. So unless you have a legitimate basis to claim that your landlord breached your rental agreement, you must fulfill your legal obligation.
But you should contact the landlord and see what you can work out. Your landlord may be very understanding and agree to release you from any further commitment.
If that doesn’t work, you can offer to buy out the lease. Of course, the landlord must make an effort to mitigate or reduce the potential damages (future rent obligations) by attempting to rent the room to someone else.
Q: We have been in the same rental house for eight years. Last Monday night, we were awakened by a fire in the kitchen. My wife and I got our kids and the dog out and everyone is OK.
We also managed to put out a good deal of the fire with garden hoses before the fire department arrived. However, there is severe damage to the house and smoke and soot damage to our belongings.
The cause of the fire, according to the fire department report, was the dishwasher. It got stuck in the dry cycle and evidently heated the wiring to the point that it started a fire behind the dishwasher.
We do not have renter’s insurance. Our landlord’s insurance company will cover the repair of the house, but not any of our losses, including cleaning our things. We have had to secure temporary housing at a considerably higher rate than we have been paying. We feel that this fire was a result of the landlord’s negligence, and think they should pay for our repairs and assist with the additional cost of our temporary housing. What are their legal responsibilities to us?
Griswold replies: First I am sure you now understand why you should have had renter’s insurance. If you did, you would submit a claim to your insurance carrier and they would take care of your belongings and pay your living expenses as well. Also, your insurance company would most likely seek reimbursement from the landlord for the cause of the fire.
Because you don’t have renter’s insurance you should try to make a claim directly with the landlord’s carrier. They are likely to deny your claim because they don’t insure you. Then you need to decide whether to pursue legal action. You could go with a small-claims action or hire an attorney and go for a full-blown civil action.
You apparently have already made some inquiries in this area and know that it will be expensive. Sometimes just hiring an attorney to send a letter indicating the facts and demonstrating that you will take further action if necessary can be enough to get the landlord’s insurance company to be fair and reasonable.
Of course, the magnitude of your casualty loss in dollars and the jurisdictional limit for small claims may be the deciding factor of whether small claims (with its nominal cost and swift results) is preferable or you need to gear up for a long and expensive battle.
Send questions to Rental Roundtable, 5703 Oberlin Drive, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92121-1743, or by e-mail to rgriswold@retodayradio.com.
Source:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/26/REDGRM3NO.DTL
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