Virginia lease termination question

My lease states Landlord or tenant may terminate this lease effective at the end of the initial term of this agreement or at the end of subsequent term upon written notice given to other party at least 60 days prior to the effective date of such termination. Notice to cancel must be given prior to the first day of a month in order to cancel the lease agreement 2 months following the first day of said month. my lease is July 2008 to July 2009
Am I able to break my lease by giving written notice of 60 days at any time?
My landlord states this is only notice for 60 days prior to effective term.
I have many prospectives willing to take over my lease, but I have a roommate that for one reason or another, can find fault in each person who walks through the door. Do I have any rights here to break my lease?
My roommates boyfriend has also been living in the house for the past three months straight, without any legal or financial obligation without the landlord knowing. Please advise. Thank you

You cannot break your lease at this time. That clause clearly states that you can give notice to vacate at the end of the lease or any renewal term, not in the middle of the lease period. It is not a month to month and cannot be terminated at will.

What does your lease say about subletting or subleases? How about assignments of leases? If it is silent, contact the LL and ask for his permission to sublease the unit. Get copies of his applications and give him the completed applications to screen, or send interested people to him to complete this. Or ask if he would sign a new lease with the person you send (doubtful he will do this). If you and your roommate each rent seperate rooms on separate contracts, he can re-rent your unit without his/her permission. Please list your state to get state specific information.

Additionally, you can contact the LL and let him know of the unauthorized occupant and explain that is why you wish to leave. Ask that this BF be allowed to take over your portion of the lease since he is already living there. He can be his/her roommate on the lease.

The occupancy is Richmond VA
The contract states we can sublet with the LL permission, of which we have been in contact with him regarding the boyfriend situation, and of the difficulty of one of the girls, (there are two other girls and myself on a joint contract) not being cooperative of the situation of finding someone. We did have a male who was willing to take occupancy, and this particular girl was present when he was there and verbally told him, while I was there as well, that he could move in. Based on that, I signed another lease. She then looked him up on spacebook and he stated he was a Christian and his favorite book was the bible, so she backpeddled and didn't think because of that it would work out. So now I have two leases, as I stated, because of her initial approval I thought I was all set, and I have moved into my new place. I have had several showings and she can find fault in each one. I have talked to my LL about this and he says we have to work it out. How long can she be a roadblock to me, and do I have any repurcussions due to this?
My lease does not state a specific penalty for breaking it, but it does state the LL can have us be responsible for the legal fees.

Since you have already moved out, you need to notify the LL of such. Let him know that you tried very hard to locate another tenant, but the roommates vetoed anyone whom you wanted to sign a sub-lease with. Ask that he locate another roommate and take prompt steps to re-rent the unit and mitigate your damages as required by state law. You are required to pay the rent until he re-rents the room, but he is required to take reasonable steps to re-rent (meaning a court would limit your liability to a few months rent).

I live out of state and I signed a copy of a lease, and I cancelled within 3 business days. Can I received back my deposit. I had an appt to sign the orignal lease but I change my mind due to a delay in my start date at work. Does Virginia give a 72 hour rule for lease ageements cancellations?

The 72 hour law you refer to only deals with sales contracts under the consumer protection laws and does not apply to residential rentals.

If you have a receipt for a "deposit" and there was no clause stating it was a holding fee that reverts to a deposit upon completion of the lease, you may still be able to get the deposit back. But if they were unable to rent if after you failed to sign and they lost prospective tenants that they turned down once you stated you would sign the lease, expect them to agrue to keep it for those reasons.

I currently live with 2 other tenants in a single family dwelling that we moved in on September 30, 2007 and signed a one year lease ending September 30, 2008. We never signed another lease and a situation has arose where we need to move out. The landlord is saying that since we didn't give the 60 day notice 60 days before the end of the lease, we are now locked into another year and can only get out if we pay an early termination fee and find people to move in to take our place. This sounds ridiculous as we are trying to give 60 days notice now and then move out at the end of Novemeber, please help! How can we be held down contractually another year without signing anything agreeing to this?

Chad

Speaking of Virginia leases...my husband signed a lease without my seeing the property (I was in New Mexico). When I visited, I found that there was mold. It causes asthma for me, and I cannot live in the house. My income was used to establish credit worthiness, but I never signed the lease. We would like to move out and find a mold-free property. Does the fact that I haven't signed the lease help us in any way? Or do we still have to go through the lengthy process of getting a professional mold test, waiting for the LL to try to fix the problem, before moving? Would a Doctor's recommendation that I not live in those conditions help? Help!

Chad, read through your lease and see if there is a clause for automatic renewal. If the lease auto-renews for another whole term if not terminated 60 days prior to its termination, you have another year's lease. If not, you are on a month to month tenancy. Please post back here with the clause that pertains to this in your lease.

To poster #8, not signing will not help you. You could move out, but your husband could not. He would still be obligated. Yes, you need a mold test. A professional one, not those cheap kits from big box stores. The test you need must compare the amount of mold in the unit with that in the outside air (since mold is everywhere in the air, it needs to show elevated levels in the unit). It also needs to show the amount of mold (PPM of mold inside) and the strain of mold (not all molds are harmful, some are beneficial). So the test results will end up showing that there are elvated levels inside, of a harmful amount, and of a harmful type of mold. A note from your doctor is esentially useless beacuse it only shows your medical condition, something the LL is not responsible for. The test results will show that the mold is harmful to anyone, not just someone in your medical condition.

With these results, you write a repair request for mold remediation sent to the LL by certified mail, rrr. Keep a copy. He should repair or you can break the lease. Without these test results, you cannot prove there is indeed mold (not mildew), that it is harmful (black mold instead of a penicillin strain), and that there is an elevated amount (not just a wet season outdoors). Call the health department, a building inspector, or an air quality company (make sure they are mold certified!).

is there any way to cancel a commercial lease in Virginia? the lease has been signed about 12 hours and will not take effect till October 1.