Lease Issues in Lousiana, can we pay up and leave?

[dnkelly1977]

Hi there. New to the forum. We are having a bit of a nightmare at present in our current rented property. I have one main question, but any advice or thoughts would be appreciated. I will give a bit of background. A bit longwinded im afraid.

My now wife and a co-worker (both military) signed a lease in January 05 until September 31st 2005. Both signed the lease. Both pay via separate rent checks. It is our understanding that both My Wife and our housemate our joint tenants. Our housemate was due to deploy to Crete in either August or September of this year - he was unsure at the time of signing the lease exactly when it would be - it was agreed (unfortunately verbally!) with the then sane seeming landlady that we would run the lease until september 31st but if it turned out he had to go sooner we could break the lease sooner.

Although the lease says that the property should be occupied by no more than two persons unless written permission is given, the landlady was advised at the time of signing the lease that I would be arriving in January (awaiting visa) and would be Marrying my now wife and would be living in the property. Although no written permission was given, we were informed this would be fine. I have since dealt in person with the landlady and maintenance man several times regarding lease issues and repairs so they were fully aware that I was here and obviously had no objection to it. We presumed that this was acceptance of me now being a third occupier of the property.

It mentions nothing in the lease about restrictions on having temporary guests. It states that the water bill will be paid, however if there is excess water usage we would be made to pay a surcharge. This has never occurred. We have never been asked to pay a surcharge or advised that we were using too much water.

Since moving in it has become apparent that our landlady is a very highly strung, eccentric, very egotistical, and perhaps a little crazy. Whenever she has spoken to us she has talked down to us like she is our boss and has total authority over us. Or upstairs neighbours complained to her on one occassion of loud music at night (our housemate). This was ceased immediately and has not been repeated. She seemed to take an instant dislike to our housemate telling him "if we cant find a solution maybe he should find another place to live". She currently has another unrented property, when my wife and I once enquired about extending the lease of the property we currently live in once our housemate moved, she declined to extend it at that time, but said that if we didnt want a roomate we could move into her other apartment leaving our housemate to find a new roomate and she would not penalise us for breaking the lease early. We declined as it seemed unfair to leave our housemate in the lurch. This also led us to believe that our housemate was a joint lease holder, as if he was just a secondary resident he would not be under any obligation to stay should we break the lease and move out.

Repair requests have also been unmet. Since moving in only two of the stove-top burners have worked. We have requested several times for their repair to be informed that they had ordered a new stove-top. This was nearly five months ago. Our bathroom door is a poorly fashioned sliding door that always comes of the runners, getting stuck. On several occasions resulting in us getting stuck in or out of the bathroom. When we have complained about this the handyman has put it back on the runner and said we needed to be "very gentle with it". We are always gente with it, but it always breaks within a day of being "fixed". It is a crap door.

Ok getting closer to the point (if you havent given up already!). Our housemate got confirmation of his orders. He ships out on August 1st. We called the landlady to confrm, as our previous conversation that we would be leaving august 1st. She claims she the conversation never took place. Our housemate has a document from the Navy informing that the landlady has to let him out of his lease early due to his orders (apparently this was a law passed a few years ago) and there is nothing she can do about it. It also states that she can only withold his deposit should there be noticeable or substantial damage etc. Ok so he is going either way.

We had called to discuss the situation with the landlady. Ideally we didnt want to stay. We actually dislike the house. Dislike our landlady (though we have never made this clear and have always been courteous, polite and professional). We also dont think that the property is worth the $1100 per month rent. We werent sure how this would affect us as joint tenants. We were obviously aware that we may have to see out the lease and make up our housemates half of the rent. But we wanted to discuss what would happen with deposits etc, having the property inspected when he moves out etc.

Well I had a call at 06:45am this morning from the landlady to advise that she had put a letter in our mailbox and that if we had any further questions we needed to put them in writing. I got the letter in which she states:-

"It is not her job to broker the relationship between my wife, the primary lease holder, and your second resident - our housemate"

"Although it was your housemate who negotiated the lease, for a term of less than one year, e is not the lease holder, and has been a challenging and difficult tennat, to say the least" (where she gets the challenging and difficult thing from i have no idea).

"I am not sure that you hae read the lease completely, and understand the terms. For example #9 (USE) clearly states that the apartment is for a maximum of 2 persons, and that with written notice, a third person may be added for a water surcharge. Im sure that if you read the balance of item 9, you will see that Mr McGyver has had a surplus of guests - who also used alot of water(he has had two people stay for the weekend - otherwise it is just workmates/frieds visiting and not staying over) - and that both of you have been in flagrant violation of the lease, practically from the first month Please refer to item number 17 "no waiver".

"My suggestion at this point, SINCE I HAVE NO INTENTION OF RETURNING A DEPOSIT FOR BREAKING A LEASE of an apartment that (our roomate) conned you into (again not sure what she means by that), is for you to find another roomate and finish our the term of your lease.

She also threatens to complain about us to my wifes Navy authorities - which really would be bad for her (they take things such as lease violations very seriously) by saying:-

"I would prefer not to contact commanding officers concerning these difficulties, but will not hesitate, should it become necessary, as i feel we have all been snookered by (our housemate).

Ok so im sure she has us, she is all powerful landlord after all. However-

Would it make any difference if our housemate is indeed, as we believe a equal and joint tenant?

Can she withold our entire deposit for apparently using too much water and by having a third person live without written permission, even though she was aware that I would be living here, that i was living here and that she had dealt with me several times and not voiced any objection to my being here without written permission. Could this be considered acceptance of the living situations if she did not complain about me being here or communicate to us that we were in violation of our lease and that i should leave? They never once asked us for extra water money so we presumed we had not used to much water.

We feel that she is being a little vindictive and vengeful as she cannot prevent our housemate from leaving. She has told us that if we have any further questions about it to put it in writing and she will try her best to answer them. It would be so much simpler if we could actually all sit down face to face and work this out.

She spoke to me in a way that suggested "hah-hah, you have to live here til september and there is nothing you can do about it" - so after that long speil and vent. My main question is this:-

We have decided that if we are to have to find double the rent to pay our housemates half for the remaining three months of the lease, and due to the manner in which the landlady has spoken to us and made a point of "you have to live here and there is nothing you can do about it I am all powerful" that we would infact just take out a personal loan and pay up our lease and move out this weekend.

Is there anything that can prevent us from doing this? If we pay all the rent owed to the end of the lease in one sum - can we move out now? Even if that means forfitting the deposit.

Alternatively, I know it is being a bit petty. But to prevent our landlady having the bonus of having all the money in one go, and being able to rent out the apartment straight away and double her profits, are we able to continue to pay the monthly rent til the end of the lease, keep the keys and still move out. So that although we dont live there and it will be empty, she cannot rent the property out and it is still "ours" should we require it. We would still return every couple of days to check the property. And if this is the case and we can do that, even though we arent living there, but are paying rent, would we still have the same rights to repair. Could I put in a repair request for the items mentioned above and demand they are fixed even though we arent living there?

Many many thanks to anyone who actually read through this. Im not sure if I will get any responses due to the lenght of the post, but many thanks in advance for any replies.

[elklaw]

It was long-winded, but basically there is a lease with the wife and the housemate. They are joint tenants, but without seeing the lease I cannot tell if they are joint tenants with each responsible for one half of the rent paid, or if they are joint tenants who are jointly and severably liable meaning if one leaves the other is responsible for full rent, then the person left can go after the other person but with Soldiers and Sailors Act and an overseas deplyment, this may be difficult. My suggestion is to go to the base JAG legal assistance office for assistance in getting out of the lease and negotiating a settlement so everyone can move on with their lives. If this goes to court, base JAG should be able to represent you for free. I think you are getting so emotionally involved that you may blow a gasket if you have to see the landlord anymore, so maybe let a more neutral party get this resolved.

[dnkelly1977]

Many thanks for your reply, I will speak to the wife about Jag tonight.

[mikswi]

So, how did you make out?

I would have suggested to just "suck it up" for the few months then find a place that you have put much research into............

[loan_info]

it seems that your landlady is trying to take advantage of you guys by playing rules from the lease that you might not read carefully.