how do i get out of an apartment lease?

Question

I co-signed for my boyfriend to get an apartment. We broke up because he's an unappreciated asshole that says he doesn't need me. I do not want any liability and want to get my name off the lease. We got the apartment only 2 months ago and the lease is for a year. I've tried contacting the owner by phone she never picks up. The apt manager is his neighbor and I don't want to go there. What do I do?

Answer 1

Make enough noise that the neighbors complain and you get evicted. I owe several rentals. Trust me it works…. No liability.

Answer 2

First and foremost, you need to get some legal advice tailored to your individual situation and lease contract. If you don’t have or can’t afford your own lawyer, get in touch with your local legal aid office and contact tenants’ rights organizations. Attorneys can be expensive, but being sued by your landlord for breaking your lease could be much more costly. If you don’t want to pay the rest of the rent that you’ve committed to shell out by signing the lease, you’d better get some sound advice so you don’t end up paying more than you had to in assorted late fees or other conditions stated in obscure parts of your lease. Tenants’ rights organizations are experienced in representing tenants who want to break their lease, and they’ve likely seen almost every situation imaginable—as well as a good number of pretty unimaginable situations.

The legal aid you acquire may tell you there’s not much to be done. You entered into a legal agreement of your own accord, after all, and you knew—or should have taken pains to investigate—the physical condition of the apartment and grounds and the nature of the available amenities before signing the lease. For this reason, claims about noise problems or facilities shortcomings are generally unlikely to work well unless you can thoroughly document the existence and severity of the problems, your attempts to have them resolved, and your landlord’s failure to do so. The vague complaint of “too much noise” is probably useless; you knew (or should have known) the noise level of the apartment complex when you moved in. For example, why move in to a rowdy complex that caters to hard-partying college students if you start work at 5 in the morning? Your landlord is only responsible for providing basic amenities and ensuring your “reasonable enjoyment” of your rental unit. The definition of reasonable varies wildly from person to person, and even if your demands seem reasonable to you, they might not seem so to your landlord—or to a judge in court.

Answer 3

The only way for you to get out of the lease is with the permission of the owner or apartment manager. Sorry.

Answer 4

Hopefully you've learned your lesson - don't ever sign for anybody.

If they won't re-sign in only your boyfriends name (and since you had to co-sign, that seems likely), you may want to sublet your half of the apartment - www.roommates.com is a good place to post that.

Any communication you have with the apartment should be registered mail in case there is a problem you can prove what you've needed to do.

Answer 5

Notify the apartment manager in writing, telling her of the circumstances, the landlord could rewrite the lease under him if he is still living there, then again the landlord may keep you to the contract.
But send it to your landlord in writing either way notifying them that you would like out of the lease. It never hurts. Goodluck

Answer 6

Julie's right. It needs to be done by mail, preferably Certified Letter. That doesn't mean you'll be successful though.