I have asked my landlord for a copy of me lease. He gave us one when we first signed the lease a month before we even moved in. I lost the lease in the move and have been trying to find it. I have not had any luck in finding it. I asked my Landlord for a copy of it and he still has not gotten it to me. I would like to get out of my lease but want to do everything the right way, which is why I asked for the lease so that I can read it over and do everything that I can. What can I do and how long should I give him before I take legal action.

Take legal action (as in suing the landlord for doing the same thing you did: loose a document)? Going way overboard in my opinion.

If you want out of the lease, tell him so. Tell him that you are going to treat it as a month-to-month tenancy-at-will, and give him a 30 day notice (or whatever your jurisdiction requires). At least this will force him to come up with a copy, if he has it.

Hello j:

If you have a lease arrangement (whether you have the document or not), you may NOT be able to break it. Certainly, if I wrote it, you wouldn't be able to. Of course, that's assuming that I kept up MY end of the lease.

I'll bet you'll have a lot more luck if you offer him a couple months rent as consideration for breaking the lease. If you start by telling him that YOU'VE had enough, and that YOU'RE not going to pay anymore, I think he'll fight you tooth and nail for every penny he's entitled to. If you live in Florida, he doesn't even have to mitigate your losses. He can just sit back and collect from you till the lease expires.

excon