Can I break the lease?

We have been leasing a house for a little over two years. There are 10 months left on the lease. The house is in Utah. My husband just got transferred to Iowa and will be there for close to 2 years. I want to be with him and not live apart as it will be better for our son. Is this good enough reason to relieve us from the lease?

We paid a down payment of $3000 (escrow down payment as this is a lease purchase), put in the backyard ourselves with our money ($5000), put up a block wall with custom iron work with our money ($3000), put up 3 gates ($5000), furnished the house with blinds ($5000), paid for appliance upgrades to stainless steel and flat surface stove, and added on to the back patio ($3000). So we did all this to the house with our money that the owner is benefitting from. We also had the lease for $1750.00 per month. A year into the lease, he said he was in a bind and asked to up our lease payment to $2100 which he could not legally do. We agreed and asked that it be put toward the escrow. This addendum was for 1 year. So we agreed to pay 350 extra each month for 12 months. We have paid it for 15 months instead which we just realized. So we have also overpaid rent by $1050. Will all this help us if he were to take us to court? We can't afford for my husband to work and pay for a lease payment in Ohio and a house lease payment in Utah.

A lease purchase agreement is different than a plain lease. You have signed a contract to buy that houe. When does your contract say you have to finalize the purchase and obtain a mortgage? Breaking a purchase agreement is more difficult than breaking a lease.

You may be able to break the purchase agreement, but will probably lose the downpayment you have been building since a job transfer is not reason enough to concel a purchase contract. Additionally, if the LL did not give you permission in writing to do all of the work to the house, your improvements may or may not be refunded. Did he give you this or offer to reimburse you for the work? Normally in a plain lease, any improvement you put into the property without permission is a gift to the owner. Improvements, once installed, become part of the property.

In a purchase, it may be considered though, if it is unfairly enriching the owner. However, he can always complain that he did not give you permission to do these improvements and that he doesn't want them. If he takes the property back as a rental, he may say the backyard is a waste since future tenants will not care for it and he'll end up having to mow it down, the decorative ironwork was unneccessary and possibly a liability for tenants' children (if it is pointed), the appliance upgrade was unneeded since the appliances furnished worked perfectly well, the blinds are something else a tenant can break that he must maintain (costing him more money), and that he didn't want a patio taking up valuable yard space for a pool or whatever. (You get the idea.) He can ask that you remove all of these and return the property to pre-rental condition.

Is your husband going to stay at the job in OH or is he going to be returning to UT after the 2 yr stint? If he will be returning, you may want to consider subletting the unit for those 2 years with a property management company. You could continue to make payments on the house and continue to purchase it, yet have someone else live in the property and maintain it and help make the payments.