Lease agreement broken because of harassment and threats, can the leaser be penalized?

Question

In college this past fall my niece decided to move in with a few girls & split rent. After being with them for 3 weeks things got crazy. These girls had boys coming over all times of night, they were wearing her clothes without her permission, eating up food, drama after drama so she decided to move out and they stayed in the apartment. She found her own apartment and thought that she left them on good terms. The girls got violent, they harassed her, the sent threaten emails & phone calls, they tried to run her off the road one day, they bust out her windows and flat tires and this was a car that I loaned to her. I was afraid for her and she was afraid also. It took the cake when a guy out of no where started harassing her as well. She broke the new lease and now the landlord wants to sue her for being there for only 2 weeks. The landlord never gave her a lease copy anyway. The landlord demands $5,000 despite this the police reports. The landlord sees an opportunity for greed.

I am not saying that my niece should escape free from this situation because of her misfortune with airheads but why is the landlord trying to demand thousands of dollars when the rent was only $500 a month and she only been there for 2 weeks and gave notice that she was breaking the lease. Even the landlord herself seen a lot of the harassments and showed sympathy but now she acts like she never knew about any of this. I am a little upset that my 18 year old niece didn't have sense enough to get a copy of her lease in writing instead of allowing herself to be taken advantage of.

Answer 1

A landlord has a duty to mitigate his damages under a lease. ( I have been a landlord for over 40 years I have a lot of experience with this)

A landlord can only collect actual damages if a tenant breaks a lease. The landlord does not automatifcally have a right to collect all of the rent that would have been due under the lease.

A landlord must make his best efforts to re rent the property. A landlord can only collect actual damages, such as past unpaid rent, the loss of rent for the period that the property is vacant, damage to the property beyond normal wear.

I know that in a college town where most of the tenants are college students it is more difficult to rent a property in the middle of a term, however at quarter and semester breaks there are new students arriving and there is the opportunity to re rent the property at that time.

With respect to the harassment and crime problems, effectively she was forced out of the apartment by her roomates. Your niece definitely has a right to recover damages from her roommates and their friends who were harassing your niece.

With respect to the landlord, I can tell you from personal experience if the landlord were to take this matter to court and your niece were to defend with the the police reports, the court would be very skeptical that the landlord did not know about the problems.

If a tenant can show that criminals are making a property unsafe for the tenmant (the police reports are an excellent form of documentation), most courts that I have had experience with are reluctant to enforce the terms of the lease under those circumstances.

Answer 2

Sounds like your niece will have to show up in court and defend herself against the landlord, failure to show to court will equal a judgment issued against her

now toward the claim of un paid rent for 5K, while yes your niece signed a legal binding contract, once she gave notice of her intent to breach, just or not, the landlord can not simply sit on her hands and do nothing, then at the end try to recoup the total amount on the lease

every state in us under landlord tenant law, will require the each party even the non-breaching party to mitigate their damage, in this case the landlord has a legal duty to find a new renter once your niece left

now this may take time, and your niece is legal responsible for the rent during this time, but to sit on her hands do nothing then at the end of the lease demand full payment is unreasonable

as toward she was just in breaching the lease is another issue, better have real hard evidence of the harassment , even then not sure what the landlord is responsible since the girls being grown adults entered into a legal binding contract

one should consult a lawyer familiar with that state and county landlord tenant laws

Answer 3

Upset or not over the landlord, he is within his rights. If your niece signed a lease and tried to break it two weeks later, he has a right to be upset with her. In most states, the landlord will be required to make honest attempts to re-rent the property to another tenant. However, until he does so, your niece is on the hook for the rents agreed to in the lease, PLUS any costs the landlord incurs in re-renting the property.

With regard to the comments of others regarding the harassment at the new facility, it's not the landlord's obligation to prevent such harassment from occurring. He merely rents the premises, and as long as he provides adequate security (working door locks, etc.), it's not his issue with which to deal. That is the purview of the local police department.

Sad to say, another lesson in the validity of signed contracts has been learned.

Answer 4

talk to a lawyer. is there a police report regarding the harassment? for each time, that is. is it documented somewhere that these things happened. be ready to get sued in small claims court, or your niece should be ready. also does your niece have a copy of the lease agreement. the landlord probably has the signed original.

Answer 5

If the lease was for a year, and he collected first and last month's rent, $1,000, then he's probably trying to collect the balance of the lease - $5,000, or $500 X 10 months. I feel sorry for your niece but she did sign a lease agreement and is breaking it. Sue the two girls for $6,000, damages to the car and get out of town.