Breaking the Sublease

[ruxandra]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California

I signed a sublease agreement with my subleasor, which I am not certain if she has turned it to the property manager or not.
The agreement was signed before I see the appartment since I wasn't in US and she required me to sign the agreement before arrival, or the apartment would be rent to someone else. However, after one week, I still feel uncomfortable with the environment. The distance to school is further than described, there are about 10 homeless around which makes me feel insecure since they did some agressive actions the other day (wasn't mentioned), the guy living upstairs kept on stomping, and the room is not clean enough to my taste (my roomate and me are bitten by some unknow insects, and we saw spiders on the floor).

I hope I can at least move out after this month. But the agreement didn't say anything about breaking the agreement. And the subleaser kept on telling me that what we agreed in the emails doesn't count, which includes the rent.

However, substantively, I signed the agreement based on those details we went through in our emails. I also spent at least $40 on international calls to check the details with her. (she asked me to call her, otherwise I wouldn't be able to reach her.)
I'm wondering if I can break the agreement without paying the rent while I don't live here.

Thanks in advance for answering.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You had the address of the apartment and the school, right? You never plugged them into Google Maps to check the distance or commute time? How much distance was described, and what's the actual distance? Are you calculating the actual distance by road, or "as the crow flies" - and is there a difference?

Unless the homeless people are in your apartment, they're a fact of life.

When you live in an apartment you risk that other neighbors will make noise you can hear.

Seeing a spider is not cause to get out of a lease. What type of insect bit you? Have you inquired with your landlord about extermination?

Disagreements in the taste of furnishings aren't going to get you out of a lease.