[Dr Life]

Is there a law that applies in Tennessee?. when

a) There is no specified penalty in the contract for early termination, and

b) I need to move to another town.

(The lease agreement is for sharing a condo for one year and we are 5 months into it, the living arrangements have deteriorated and are NOT what was portrayed at first; e.g. roommate with multiple friends at all hours, his girlfriend practically lives there but pays no rent and everybody eats my food, so I can hardly even eat and sleep there, much less study, not to mention drug usage going on in the condo).

Thanks,

Frustrated

[Duane in Japan]

You can terminate your contract based on the items you have listed. They are stealing your food, there are people living there that are not listed on the contract, visitors are limited to a certain number of hours by contract. Is there no quiet hours clause in the contract, noise is a typical item since they can disturb the neighbors also. No penalty listed is no penalty but is it not there, or is it not in plain language, hense the reason you are here asking.

If some of these items are not in the contract, then get them put in the next time. I have a flat rate water fee for each person in the house, long term visitors cost more and need to be amended for the time they are here after x amount of hours. Its funny, you could bring in a homeless person for an hour everyday to let them take a shower and eat, this does not require me to add them to the list to raise my water bill based on the hours that person would be in the house, I can also fill and drain a kids swimming pool everyday at no extra charge too, just does not make sense. Quiet hours start at 22:00. Anyone in the house that is not on the contract will be escorted out by the police. I have a roommate (longtime girlfriends nephew) who pays me $200 additional per month for food. His rent gets him full use of the house so he can cook anything at anytime, if he was to eat more than $200 a month, then its my loss but he is not limited to his food, its all OUR food. He is 19 and needs to learn resposibilty. Do not eat my food unless I invite you to the table, if he was not paying, which is the scenario now (temperary).

We are moving to a temp apt (between houses right now, long story), I gave $100 back at mid month and told him I was not buying anymore food for the rest of the month, to eat out everyday, he cannot eat out for two weeks on $100. We live in Japan as I am retired military and can buy food in the base cheap, but downtown is very expensive. He also has a furnished (by me) room, with a small frig, he can put his own food that he bought with his own money in there and claim 100% of that food, he cannot transfer food from the kitchen to his frig, drinks are OK just to make them handy in his room. Next time have your roomies get their own frig too. His own leftovers are OK also, that his Aunt (my girlfriend) cooks for the family.

His Aunt washes his dirty dishes from when he eats alone, she complains about that, it's the only real complaint so in our next house, he will have to wash dishes once per week on his day off from work, no matter how many there are but there is never dirty dishes left overnight so he will only wash one days dirty dishes from all of us, this will be less work than washing his own dishes everyday but it's a compramise from his Aunt and we all agreed.

You are just in a learning process and this is a lesson to guide you in your own future contact situations. There are so many scenarios in a housing contract, we may never see them all.

[ScottGem]

Actually I don't think you have grounds to terminate. Have you reported the drug use, taken steps to protect your food?

On the other hand have yyou spoken to the roommate about getting out?

[Dr Life]

Actually I don't think you have grounds to terminate. Have you reported the drug use, taken steps to protect your food?

On the other hand have yyou spoken to the roommate about getting out?

Yes, he was notified that I need to move to another town, and no, the drug use hasn't been reported (I'm still getting my things out of the condo). My main concern is whether Tenn. State law has a "default" 30 day notice with 30 days penalty, or samething similar?
Thanks

[ScottGem]

When you notified him, did he say anything about holding you to the lease? Generally you need to give notice of at least one full rental period. But if the roommate doesn't want to hold you to it.