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  1. #1

    Default Breaking a Lease Before Moving In, in California

    Hi,

    I recently signed a 1-Year lease with a Property Management Company and during the walk through we found some health and safety issues and notified the property management company, along with notifying them that we would like to terminate the lease because of these issues.

    One of the issues was good old mold. There were only a few spores, but there was mold none-the-less. On top of mold spores found, there were leaks in the roof found, which are more concerns for possible mold. Along with what I would consider pretty severe water damage under the kitchen sink area due to a leaky RO/DI water installation. Lastly there is a nice sun extension installed in the kitchen which is not properly sealed from the outside.

    There were also a long list of other things that were not factors in the final decision to break the lease.

    I understand that I can be held responsible for lease until a new tenant is found, BUT is there a clause for the rent due to the mold?

    I have had the keys for the house for about 10 days, and have moved furniture in but nothing is setup and noone is staying at the residence.

    I will be reading over the lease tonight, since the Property Management seemed to take a step back from their original stand..

    Lastly, we (my girlfriend and I) signed 2 different leases, one she only signed and one I only signed. They differ in the dates the lease is. Mine they "accidently" wrote 7-15-07 - 8-15-07, but her's was scratched out to read 7-15-07 - 8-15-08. My question, if it gets really ugly and they try to hold me to more can I use my lease to help get out of paying for more then the date said above? How will my girlfriends lease come into play?

    Thank you

  2. #2

    Default Re: Breaking a Lease Before Moving In, in California

    Just to add. I went over the "Mold Notification Addendum" and in the first section it says "know that the Owner / Agent has inspected the unit prior to lease and knows of no damp or wet building materials and knows of no mold or mildew"

    Would they have to show proof of the walk through? I saw nothing of a walk through, and as it is well documented in our walk through, that there were about 40 spiders that were killed in the residence, along with many other things that would have been VERY noticeable if the property management company did a walk through.

    Would that Addendum be void? Especially since I gave them a written notification (email) about the mold etc only 3 days after the lease started? We supplied them with pictures. How long do they have to make the repairs or rid the house of the mold? If the mold or water damage issues and other issues that can cause the mildew are not completed within the alloted time, will that void the lease and allow us to move on?

    The "visible" mildew is not great, but the walls are newly painted, and there are roof leaks (and I did not think it is my duty to go up into the attic and check, and the rental agreement states that the lease is not allowed to go on the roof for ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, so I can't check the exterior for the leaks).

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Breaking a Lease Before Moving In, in California

    You say you found very little mold, and have made no claim that it is either obvious or a health risk, so I doubt that you will get very far trying to break your lease on that basis.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Breaking a Lease Before Moving In, in California

    Quote Quoting aaron
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    You say you found very little mold, and have made no claim that it is either obvious or a health risk, so I doubt that you will get very far trying to break your lease on that basis.
    I am not a mold expert and that is why I think it is not obvious to me. The location of it is very easy to see. It is in the bathroom area spotted about a foot long on the ceiling, maybe a total of about 8 spots some being about half dollar size.

    As for the health risks we have not moved in, to test if it will irritate us health wise. We have a 6 month old baby, and finding out by moving in and "finding out" is not the way we would want to do it.

    There are also spots where you can see the roof is leaking (water spots on the ceiling) and a pretty good water leak under the kitchen sink which could house mold (I didn't look in there in too much depth when I saw the water damage).

    My concern is the mold in the attic / between the walls because of the water leaking from the roof.

    California Law requires that the roof does not leak, but I believe it includes the word "substantial" with leaking, and I don't know if I would consider the current leak "substantial" but then again, it isn't even rainy season and the previous tenant (which we know) said it didn't lean while they were there (There was about a 6 month time between the move out of the last tenants and the move-in by us)

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