When Can You Break Your Lease Without Penalty Over Security and Repair Issues

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


Alright, so, there are a few things that have happened that make me wonder if I have a legal right to break my lease.

1. My car was broken into, full on window shattered, while parked in front of the leasing office. I asked if I could see the video surveillance and was told no, unless I have a subpoena. I did file a police report. (Staff could not have cared less).

2. I asked to see the contract/lease that I signed and was told no. (The girl I was talking to about my car just getting broken into was mad and said I could come back the next day when someone else was there if I wanted to see the contract....this happened on a Sunday and I work the same hours that the leasing office is open aside from the weekend.)

3. We filed a maintenance request due to our showers temperature fluctuating drastically and had actually burned my fiance's neck and back. (we have no proof of this) and were told this was not an emergency and that someone would be there sometime next week. We asked if we could know about what day or time, or even request a time, as we don't like people in our home when we are not there. We were told no. It has been 4 days now and have heard nothing from nobody.

4.Our apartment does not hold any heat due to all of our windows letting the heat out. We have to use space heaters and heated blankets which is racking up the electric bill and also our gas bill as we have to constantly turn the heat higher or it shuts off.

1 - The landlord is no guarantor of your security and has no obligation to provide the video.

2 - You've just learned an important life lesson from the school of hard knocks. NEVER sign ANYTHING without a duplicate sitting in front of you or without photographing it with your smart phone. I don't see anything in the Ohio statutes that require the landlord to give you a copy although there are some disclosure requirements in the statutes.

3 and 4 - Read the statutes for your rights and the landlord's duties. You may have some remedies in there.

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5321

But to answer your question, no, I don't see you packing up and leaving without at least losing your deposit and perhaps facing other financial consequences.

I did inquire about the fees it would cost to break the lease. I was told I had to give 60 days notice and pay rent for said 60 days at the price of double current rent, with a $300 fee. This equals out to 4 months rent plus $300. Others I have asked have only had to pay 2 months worth of rent to end their lease early.I am not opposed to paying to get out, but the fees I was told sound a little ridiculous.

The terms of your lease determine if you can and what the costs of early termination are. It matters not what somebody else paid. The landlord is free to amend the terms of an early termination as long as all parties agree. Again, the terms in your lease control.

I suggest you figure out how to speak with somebody other than the weekend girl and get a copy of your lease.

Ohio does not appear to have a statute that requires the landlord to provide the tenant with a copy of the lease agreement.

If you called about a water issue four days ago, that would mean you called on Sunday. "It's not an emergency" presumably means, "We're not going to call a plumber to make an emergency visit on a Sunday night" and "someone will be there next week" presumably means that they intended to call a plumber on Monday, normal business hours. If you require an update, or want to verify that a plumber has been called, I suggest contacting the landlord. If you do not have a water heater that is exclusive to your own unit, or if the problem was tracked to a water pressure issue that could be resolved from outside of your apartment, there is a possibility that the issue has already been addressed. You won't know until you call.

If your landlord controls the heat and thermostat, then your landlord is obligated to provide "reasonable heat". There is no temperature that is defined by law. In other states in the winter months that's often in the 65-67 degree range. As for the windows, I don't know if these are windows that won't fully or properly close, or if these are simply old but functional windows that could benefit from some weatherstripping. Or perhaps they're old aluminum windows or single pane windows and, although in proper working order, insulate very poorly. Perhaps you could clarify exactly what is wrong with the windows.

I called today to check up on the maintenance order. Turns out they never even put one in their system so I will now be waiting until next Wednesday for them to show up. They are also going to inspect the windows while they are here. The windows appear to be new, and they do close all the way, so I am not really sure whats wrong with them.

I also obtained a copy of the lease agreement (I still have to read through it). I was also asked if I filled out an incident report form, which I didn't because the first girl I dealt with did not tell me to I had to do so. Anyways, I obtained a police report and I guess that ended up being good enough for them to retrieve the video for me...which I have to wait until tomorrow to receive.

My landlord does not control the heat, I have a thermostat in my apartment.

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Quoting unhappytenant1234

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The windows appear to be new, and they do close all the way, so I am not really sure whats wrong with them.

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Can you feel cold air seeping into the room? It could be that the windows were not properly installed, and it could easily be that once the windows were installed somebody installed the trim without first insulating the gaps between the replacement windows and the frame.

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Quoting unhappytenant1234

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My landlord does not control the heat, I have a thermostat in my apartment.

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Let's say you put the heat at (for example) 70 degrees. Does the thermostat show that the room is 70 degrees even though it's colder (in which case you would appear to have a broken thermostat), does the heat stay on all the time because the room never reaches 70 degrees, or does the heat shut off because it's 70 degrees in the location of the thermostat even though the temperature at the center of the room is considerably lower?

Honestly they probably weren't installed correctly. They remodeled all the apartments before we moved in and its a pretty choppy job in every aspect. I can feel the cold air like its blowing on me. Of course, there is hot air coming out of the vents. But by the windows the air is just pouring in.

For the heat, I would say the last option. "... the heat shut off because it's 70 degrees in the location of the thermostat even though the temperature at the center of the room is considerably lower?" The heat goes on and off all day. I just bought a separate thermostat from walmart and it currently reads 66 while my heat is set at 78. The heat is not currently running.

**update: my store bought thermostat now reads 61. :(

Quote:

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Quoting unhappytenant1234

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Honestly they probably weren't installed correctly. They remodeled all the apartments before we moved in and its a pretty choppy job in every aspect. I can feel the cold air like its blowing on me. Of course, there is hot air coming out of the vents. But by the windows the air is just pouring in.

For the heat, I would say the last option. "... the heat shut off because it's 70 degrees in the location of the thermostat even though the temperature at the center of the room is considerably lower?" The heat goes on and off all day. I just bought a separate thermostat from walmart and it currently reads 66 while my heat is set at 78. The heat is not currently running.

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There is film that you can put over windows (the whole window, trim included) that can prevent a lot of that cold air from coming in. That means of course that you cannot open any windows until you are ready to not need the heat anymore, but it could really cut down on your gas and electric bills.