Is there a 30 day lease grace period on my apartment.?

Question

I live in NC and we just moved in yesterday but we found out that there is a roach infestation going on in our place. Do we have a thirty day grace period. The apartment name is Dobbins Hill part of crossland corporate apartments. What things can we do to get our deposit back.

Answer 1

If it's a standard lease (1-2 year) then no, you can't just move out. If it's a month by month basis, you'd have to give 30 days notice.

Here's what you CAN do.
Call the landlord and report the infestation. Then contact the health department and notify them of the problem. Whenever you contact your landlord, make sure you send the SAME message by certified mail (so he can't claim he wasn't informed). Assuming he doesn't have an exterminator come in a timely fashion, your best bet would be to contact an exterminator yourself and have him come in. If the landlord refuses to pay, then take him to small claims court.

Let me be clear on this, you CANNOT pay the exterminator and deduct it from your rent. (Well, you can, but here's what happens; it'll create HUGE problems for you and the landlord can take you to court, screw with your utilities, etc...over it) It'll bring you less greif and the judge will look favorably on you if you do this properly. Do NOT jump the gun. As awful as it is, you have to give your landlord a reasonable amount of time to respond to the problem. After a week or two, if you've contacted him multiple times and he hasn't dealt with it, then you're pretty clear to take your own action and sue him for the cost. If the problem can't be taken care of with two or three exterminations, then you can take him to landlord/tenet court and petition to have the lease broken. But keep in mind you'll need PROOF. Pictures, receipts from the exterminators and a letter stating that the infestation is recurring,bad, and uncontrollable. Landlords are VERY protected in all this. Keep in mind if you move out before settling in court. You risk the possibility that when you lose, you'll be responsible for the remainder of the rental contract. Although, if you do this, be aware that a favorite trick of landlords is to re-rent immediately and then claim they couldn't get a tenant for a large portion of your lease's remaining time. All you have to do is go back to the apartment and get proof he's moved someone in and you won't be responsible for any rent from after the time that person moved in during the period your lease was supposed to be in effect.

If there's any other porblems that have made you decide you don't want to be there, document them. But I'm warning you, this is a harsh situation t be in. If you simply have to leave, document EVERYTHING and protect yourself. Right down to taking dated pictures after the moveout of how you cleaned the place up. Your landlord will try to nail you for a cleaning deposit also. Either it's an honest error due to an infestation from an unknown source, or he's a slumlord trying to take advantage of you. What he does in the next two weeks will let you know which it is.

Answer 2

No there is no 30 day grace period in California for renting apartments. You sign the lease and you are locked in for the duration of the lease. If there is a problem such as a pest or something else, too bad for you. You can contact the landlord and pest control will spray the apartment. A 30 day grace period for an apartment would be ridiculous. An apartment is not a temporary stay hotel and you do not have the option to break your lease without a penalty. The fees to break a lease are expensive.

Answer 3

Only if your lease says so.

A roach infestation isn't all that unusual though it does need to be rectified by the landlord quickly. Bring written notice to the office and give them sufficient time to put things right.

Sufficient time in this case would probably only be a day or two, but you need to follow the terms of your lease. If the landlord fails to act in a reasonable time then you may well be able to break your lease. You'd be entitled to your security deposit, less any deductions for damage that you caused, and probably a pro-rata refund of any rents already paid. However you may well have to sue to get that.

If you just up and leave without giving the landlord proper notice of the problem and reasonable time to fix it then you will be held liable for the balance of the lease at least until a new tenant is placed.

I know that roaches are nasty, but you have to follow the rules carefully or you will come out on the short end of the stick.

Answer 4

If you are looking for a thirty day window in which you can legally cancel, there isn't one. The moment you signed the lease, you were bound to it for its entire life of a year or whatever it is.

You don't get your deposit back, and you don't get out of the lease. If the management firm takes the appropriate steps to attempt to rectify the roach issue, you are being treated properly.

Bear in mind that roaches have been around far longer than humans have been, and they don't generally get a lease or ask permission to move in to your apartment. Work with the apartment management in a cooperative manner to help rid the place of the infestation.