[acusry]

I am frustrated by my landlord and feel I cannot trust him. When we moved in we were not given one of those form things to list what was wrong with the house (the landlord said it was unnecessary). The owner of the house who lives next door seemed shocked when we told her there were signs of a fire in the kitchen and a hole in the ceiling. Since we moved in the hole in the ceiling has gotten bigger, the floor of the bathtub busted in, there has been water running down the walls into electrical outlets when it rains, two large rates have been killed by the dog, and we discovered one of the upstairs windows is missing a pane (saran wrap was taped over the hole so it looked fine until the blinds were opened). The owner is really ditzy and always directs us to the landlord for issues, but he is unhelpful: we fixed the tub ourselves, the missing pane and hole in the ceiling are still there, and he did have someone fix the water leaking into the outlets but did not replace the damaged outlets so we still cannot use them.

My main complaint about him though is the fact that Im concerned about the safety of my dog. The guy who lives behind us had two dogs (his contract allowed for one but he had a verbal agreement with both the owner and landlord that two were okay). The landlord entered his house without prior notice to show it to future renters... he left the front door open and subsequently let the dogs out of the bedroom they stay in during the day, allowing them to run out into the street. One dog was killed by a car and the other died a week later of depression. The landlord did not try to contact our neighbor or even catch the dogs... he continued showing the house.

We have reached the point where we don't want to report anything else that goes wrong here because we are afraid the landlord will get our dog killed as well through such negligence. We just want to get out of this house and away from this guy. There is no clause in our lease about breaking it, and we can't afford to pay the remainder of the rent up-front. Also, I am afraid he will try to charge us for the damages which were already existing when we moved in.

My boyfriend and I are the only two on the lease (and the owners of the dog) and we live with three other roomates. I have tried finding people to replace our names on the lease without success (the roomates cannot afford the house without rent being split five-ways and would subsequently move out as well).

Any suggestions on how to get out of here?

[jonledin]

Refuse to pay lease and move out but find other reantal first. If he comes after you for remaining lease payments don't pay, he is responsible for upkeep on property along with abiding by the landlord and tennet act which comes from your state statutes.

[ScottGem]

While I sympathize with your concerns, there are no grounds for breaking your lease. Before you can break a lease for cause, you have to be able to show repeated disregard for issues that would make the property uninhabitable. And I don't see that. If you leave and the owner sues, you will, in all likelihood, lose.