Hi,
I currently have a lease in place until the end of August 2009 in New York. When I signed the 14-month lease back in July 2008, I told the Leasing Office that I may need to be relocated out of the country before my lease ended.
The Leasing Office told me that they would let me break the lease early if I gave them advance (1-2 months) notice of my situation and cooperated with them if they wanted to find a new tenant (allow potential new tenants to visit the unit, etc).
I have just notified them that I will be leaving on May 1st (more than 3 months notice). However, the Leasing Office is now telling me that I cannot break the lease early. When I remind them of our conversation earlier, they tell me that this is not expressed in the lease. I am wondering if I have any legal rights as a tenant in this case.
There are a couple of issues which I believe constitutes a violation of our lease on the landlord's part as well. Namely,
1. Our lease states that our luxury apartment would have a functional lobby (which wasn't put into place 6 months into our lease).
2. I complained multiple times that our elevators weren't safe (the display lights do not work, elevator door has trouble opening&closing). Nothing is done regarding this issue.
3. After we moved in as one of the earliest tenants, the building management had difficulty filling up the apartment and started giving huge discounts to new tenants (which we don't enjoy). Moreover, they started giving huge flat screen TVs as a promotion to all new incoming tenants (which we didn't get). -- This reminds me a lot about how Apple reduced the price of the iPhone and was later ordered by Court to pay a refund to those customers who had bought their iPhones by paying a premium earlier.
How should I deal with this situation?
Can I use #1-3 above to sue my landlord or convince them to break my lease early?
I'm not from the United States and have little knowledge of the legal procedures. Therefore, I greatly appreciate any guidance on the matter.
Many thanks,
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