Advice on breaking lease Michigan

[caila_c]

My Fiance and I started renting an apartment in February and From the first week we lived there, we started having problems. First there were the electrical problems which took about 5 days to get the landlord out there and even then he just came and looked at it and then it too 2 days to get him to fix it. Then the kitchen flooded 4 times. Then the back room has been flooded several times and the landlord keeps putting sealint (sp?) on the wall but that doesnt work. when we call them they dont return our phone calls or pick up the phone...and when they do return our phone calls they say they will come out and then dont show up. it usually takes about a week or two to get them out there. Then we have had mold on the walls in the back bedroom and bathroom for about a month now and they still havent fixed it. Then two days ago the ceiling in the bathroom colapsed and when i called the landlords they said they were coming out and then never showed up, didnt call and would return our phone calls.

We decided to put in our 30 days notice and were wondering if we could with out penaltys and i dont know if i should get a lawyer or even were to look for a lawyer for this.

Any advice

Whether or not you can be penalized for breaking a lease depends on the steps you have taken so far. Have you merely called him with these problems, or have you submitted these to him in writing? If you have only called hi, expect to be penalized. You will have no proof of reporting the problems to him. You may be able to prove you called him, but you can't prove why or what you talked about. You need to put all repair requests in writing. Send them certified, return receipt so you can prove that you made the requests and when he got them. You have to allow him a certain amount of time from the date he was notified (date will be on the post card you get back) to make repairs before you can take any action.

The length of time depends on your state law, but generally it is 48-72 hours for emergencies, and 30 days for all other problems. Getting the electric problems repaired in 7 days is sufficient unless you were completely without electricity or it affected a major system (fridge, A/C, etc.). If the LL has put sealant on the walls several times, it shows he is attempting to make repairs. He is showing a good faith effort to get the problem solved. Some plaster falling is not an emergency and this could take up to 30 days to fix. If water was flooding in, that would be an emergency.

If he fails to make efforts to repair within 30 days of when he receives written notice of most of these problems, then you have just cause to terminate. Otherwise, it may be ruled that you have not allowed him sufficient time to repair. Check your state law to see how much time it says he has to repair each problem. Leaks are not easy to fix and it does take some time to repair them correctly, sometimes requiring several efforts or tries to repair before they are fixed correctly.