[theresaw]

This is about my sister in law.

Last Sat, my sister in law woke up with a strange man trying to kiss her in her bed. She started screaming and he left. She called a neighbor who is also a close friend and the man was still on her balcony when she arrived. They started yelling at him and he left. The police didn't do anything other than give the man a warning because he claimed that he was her "boyfriend" and he was welcome into her apt at any time, which isn't true. I plan on going to the police dept tomorrow to discuss that.

Now she doesn't feel safe in her home, she's a hard working single mother of two. She wants out of her lease but they said that she needs to pay a reletting fee which she can not afford.

Also, last Friday she almost fell through her balcony (it's not the best apartments). One of her legs went through. They did fix it, I'm not sure on what day it was, but she can't possibly live there anymore.

We live in Texas, is there anyway to break the lease without having to pay any penalties?

[rockinmommy]

Go through the lease with a fine tooth comb. Try to find anything in it that they are violating. Especially if you can find anything relating to what type of lock they must provide, security, etc that may have contributed to someone easily breaking in.

Whatever you can find along those lines - she'd have 2 options. Write it all up in a letter and take it to the landlord saying, "because of X, Y, and Z, I respectfully request to be let out of my lease." If they've already told her no they're probably not going to change their minds unless she has something really convincing.

The other option is small claims court. If she can show they've violated the lease she can sue them for the lease to be terminated by a judge.

Othewise she'll need to decide if the costs of breaking the lease are worth it to move. Will she really feel safe somewhere else? How did the guy get in? Personally, after that, I'd have a really hard time falling asleep anywhere. (I'm not necessarily siding with the apartments. Just saying how creepy that would be.)

As far as the police - how on earth could they not charge the guy with breaking and entering at the very least?? So the cops actually talked to the guy? Did they get his name? I'd press charges. Against the cops and the guy.

HTH,
Karla in TX

P.S. There's a tenant's rights group in Austin. I don't remember their name, but I'm sure if you Google you can find them.

[Fr_Chuck]

She should add an alarm system.

*** and there has to be a lot more to this story, since if this was a complete stanger and he had broken into the home the man would have been thrown to the ground, handcuffed and put in jail.

Since he stood around the balcony waiting on the police, there is more to this. In years of being a police officer, no one ever waited on us

[ScottGem]

Chuck makes a point. Why would someone hang around for the police to come? Why would the police accept his word that he was a boyfriend if your sister denied it? There has to be more to this.

As for breaking the lease, she has no grounds that I can see. Unless the management is supposed to provide some security, then there is nothing they violated. The same with the balcony. Things go wrong, if they didn't fix it, that would be one thing.

[excon]

She wants out of her lease but they said that she needs to pay a reletting fee which she can not afford. ...... is there anyway to break the lease without having to pay any penalties?

Hello theresa:

I don't know how much the "reletting fee" is, but if it's a months rent maybe two, it's a pretty good deal. There are going to be penalties of one sort or another no matter what. In my view, that's the cheapest and safest way out.

excon