My husband was a Grad student, but found that his funding was going to end after the semester. We had just signed a lease a couple months earlier, and are stuck in this lease until August of 2008. We wrote a letter (the only way the office told us it was possible to contact the landlord) asking for them to let us out because my husband cannot drive back and forth to work. With the cost of gas (about $3.30/gallon) and the fact that our car is not very reliable (and it leaves my baby and I with out a car) we cannot afford it - not to mention, my husband does not get to see his baby girl hardly at all anymore. This is killing us!

The landlord refused our request, and did not get back to us for about 3 weeks to let us know that even. I had to keep going into the office to ask. When they said they would call as soon as the main lady in the office got back (by the end of the day) because she knew, I did not receive a call, so I went in when the office was about to close for the day. Both of those ladies were just sitting there. She said she was just going to mail a letter, but since I was there, just told me instead and refused to give me a number to speak with the the landlord and insisted that they DO NOT meet with tenants - that's what she is there for.... (although she can't/won't do ANYTHING).

So, now we have looked into every possibility as far as driving back and forth, renting a second place, buying a very low cost home, and looking for grants/loans to help us get by, but have found nothing that can help us out...so we're stuck unless we can get out of this lease (which still means we cannot afford to get by AND my baby and I don't get to see her daddy).

Does anyone know if we buy a low cost home before rent here becomes late and just stop paying, if they can take our house away, or garnish our wages if what we earn is just enough to get by? Or have any suggestions on other options i may not have considered? Anything you can think of would be lots of help. Thanks.

Have you asked your landlord if you could sublease the space?

Releasing is an option, but we have to pay them $150. They told me that it is unlikely that they will find someone since this is a college town and people have already moved in for the year. And we would have to pay until the lease is up or they find someone. I have been looking on my own, but the few people who have responded found places before they even got to my apartment.

Not to mention, when looking at the apartment rating recently online, we found someone who said they had to do this and kept paying rent even though they moved out of town and came back to the area to see family and drove by the apartment and found someone else was living there. They knocked on the door and the people living there said they were living there for a month. The apartment never contacted them. ....not that we could afford to move out if we had to keep paying rent anyhow...but it looks like they are maybe kind of shifty about this. :(