getting out of a lease

i rented an apartment advertised in a maine newspaper, me and 2 room mates signed a lease with the understanding that the landlord would have to follow it. This is my ordeal, the landlord breached the lease by advertising off street parking, utilities included with an additional charge, which we paid, but after we moved in and we were informed that there was no off street parking, that was misstated in the lease we signed, LL entered on several occasions with out notice, or even knocking, she keyed into the apartment, 2 of the 3 room mates work night shift, they wer both awaken by the landlord and told she needed their help with moving something. Also we paid 60.00 for utilities which she had shut off 1 week after we moved in, spoiling all our food. We spoke to the LL, which is of Asian decent so verbal communication is difficult. We asked her if we could break the lease because we didn't feel that she had fulfilled her end of the bargin, she agreed that she would return our deposit in 30 days, so we told her we would move out immediately so she could show the place, etc etc, 30 days later we recieve a notice saying she will not be returning our deposit because we did not give her proper notice and that she has incurred expenses for re advertising, and re finishing a wood floor that she said we damaged. we took pictures and had an inspection done by her before we vacated the property, which was 10 days after we moved in. what do you suggest we do?

You have several issues:
Parking-You should have been able to clearly see if there was or was not off street parking when you viewed the unit. If the lease didn't state off street parking, you agreed to park on the street.

Utilities -How are utilities included with an additional charge? Either you pay for utilities or the LL does. Please explain this further. What did your lease state exactly on this? How was this worded?

Entry-The LL must give 24 hours notice to enter in Maine. You should have notified the LL, in writing, that you require this amount of notice prior to entry.

Lease termination- Did you get anything in writing about your ability to terminate without notice and without further obligation? If not, you needed to provide proper notice per your state law (30 days notice), pay for that notice period, then you would still be responsible for the rent until re-rented, advertising costs, agent fees if they used one, etc. You needed a written release from the obligations of your lease.

What it comes down to is this. If your lease didn't specifically state utilities were included, none of the other reasons is enough justification to break a lease unless you first 1) notify the LL in writing of the problems, 2) allow the LL time to correct the problem, and 3) the problem is not corrected within a reasonable amount of time (24-72 hours for utility or habitability issues, 30 days for the others). If you didn't follow these steps, you will get no deposit back. You cannot simply terminate a lease.

"Entry-The LL must give 24 hours notice to enter in Maine. You should have notified the LL, in writing, that you require this amount of notice prior to entry."

Incorrect. The tenant does not have to inform the landlord of this. In Maine, a landlord is required to give the tenant 24 hour notice before entering a unit. It is not the responsibility of the tenant to remind the landlord of this law in writing. It is the responsibility of the landlord to follow it without needing to be told by the tenant.

Take her to small claims court and try to recoup your deposit money.

While it is true that the tenant does not have to inform the LL of this law, there is a problem. The tenant failed to document this objection to the unwanted entries. Without that, a judge could surmise that the tenant tacitly approved of such entry without notice. (It had occurred more than once and no action was taken on it.) That is why I stated that they should put the objection and reminder in writing. Without this, this probably cannot be considered a reason to break a lease. There is no evidence of their objection to the entries, and thus no evidence to document them, and prove this reason to terminate a lease. Always document everything that does not follow the lease or the law so you can use it later if need be. Putting objections in writing always helps to CYA.

It does not matter whether they objected either verbally or in writing. Maine law requires landlords to give tenants a 24 hour notice. This onus is on the landlord here, not the tenant. The landlord knew better, but chose to break that law anyway. Whether or not it's documented as the tenants objecting is irrelevant. If they can prove in court the landlord entered without that 24 hour notice, they will most likely receive their deposit back and get out of the lease.

Sorry, but that's not the way it works. LLs and tenants violate agreements all the time. If no objections are made to them, the violations become tacitly approved. Tenants bring in pets. If the LL knows about them and fails to object and document the violation, the pets are approved. The tenant pays late. If the LL fails to enforce late fees and document the late payments, no late fees can be collected.

Same with LL violations. If the tenant doesn't take steps to enforce the lease and the law, make his objections known in writing, it is assumed that the violations were not important to him and were approved. You must make objections known if you want them to be upheld in a court of law. Otherwise, you risk setting a precedent that it was not considered an issue. The best way to do this is to put them in writing. If the tenant never made objections known and failed to document the violations, he won't get anything from this in court. The judge will say he failed to act in a timely manner.

You cannot simply ignore these types of violations, then try to raise them later in court.

[angeleyes64]

We told the landlord that she had to give 24 hours notice, also that 2 roomates worked over night, she said ya ya ya, replied she'd be back in an hour, we were firm and verbal, but she would key in again. We only lived in the apt 5 days. she was very difficult to communicate with. English was not her first language and continually would say she understood then do the opposite. We wabted to put a chain lock to keep her out but she refused to let us make a change,

It was good that you made it known that she had to give her notice, but it would have been better if you had done it in writing. (Always do these types of things in writing so a LL cannot say he didn't know.) But you still need to answer some questions before we can say if you can be charged with the notice period.

You see, in all states the tenant must inform the LL of problems and allow the LL time to resolve them before they may terminate under the law. Now entering once or twice without notice wouldn't be enough to terminate on. Had she continued to do this after she was notified, you might have been able to. But since you were only there 5 days, probably not. Lack of off street parking would never be considered a legal reason to break a lease. It just isn't an important enough concern. It doesn't affect habitability, privacy issues, or the use of your unit.

But what did your lease say about utilities? You said utilities were included, but with "an additional charge". How was this written into your lease? Utilities would be the best method of legally terminating that lease. So how was it worded that utilities would be included with an extra charge? When were the utilities terminated (I assume shut off by the utility company?) Were all utilities turned off, or just one? Did you notify the LL in writing that they were off and give the LL time to fix the problem? Lack of utilities would be an emergency situation and would warrant immediate attention. But that can mean different things in different states. Immediate attention can mean 24 - 72 hours. Since you were only there 5 days (120 hrs), if it's 72 hrs in your state, you may not have given the LL official time to repair. Please reply with the lease wording so we can see how this amenity was to be delivered.

This is one of the clauses in a typical Maine lease:

11. LANDLORD ENTRY INTO THE RESIDENCE
Except for emergencies, the landlord may enter the apartment only during reasonable hours and
after obtaining the tenant’s consent at least 24 hours in advance. The tenant may not unreasonably
withhold consent to the landlord to enter the residence.

As you can plainly see, the landlord clearly is aware of the laws pertaining to this, as it is clearly worded in their own lease agreement. It already IS in writing. The landlord, in this instance, violated the lease agreement.

Perhaps the tenant informing the landlord in writing is a good way to CYA, as you say, but it is not necessary. Both parties, landlord and tenant, are assumed to have read the lease in its entirety and are clearly aware of all issues before signing and entering into that contract. In this instance, the landlord knew she was violating her own lease by entering whenever she chose to. She surely was aware that what she was doing violated her own lease.

So, sorry, but it IS the way it works.

You just don't get it. While that may be a typical lease, that is not the poster's lease. It doesn't matter what that one says. While that lease writer is aware of the law, the poster's LL may not be. She said her LL was foreign, that English was a second language, and that communication was difficult. Chances are that LL does not know the law. That clause may not even be in the poster's lease, although it is in the state statutes.

The laws and the lease are violated constantly on both sides. All courts know this. If you do not object to some violation and make it known to the other party (and only writing holds up in court) it can easily be deemed that you ignored the violation and were not bothered by it. If you ignore a violation and do not object, you cannot bring it up in court or use it as grounds to terminate. This happens in court all the time. One party complains that the other party did _____ (fill in the blank). The judge says, "Did you notify them in writing?" or "What action did you take when they did that?" If nothing, the judge says, "well if you allowed it to continue, you must not have cared." You have to avail yourself of all the procedures and legal remedies in order to terminate. One of those is to notify the LL in writing and allow him/her time to correct the situation. You must do this before you can terminate on any repair or violation. This step is VERY necessary.

Lets say a LL fails to provide heat. Every person knows the laws say the LL must provide the means for heat, hot water, etc. Can a tenant simply terminate because there is no heat? NO! He must send a written notice to the LL and allow him time to correct. If the tenant bypasses this step, he cannot lawfully terminate. If he does, he will still be held responsible for the rent until re-rented, etc. because he failed to allow the LL a chance to cure. You MUST include this step. The only way around it is if a building inspector or heath dept. declares you can leave immediately (through condemnation or code violations).

Termination of a lease is a final step. You cannot jump it to the head of the line of remedies. You must follow the remedies from least to most severe as the situation calls for. In a simple case of one or two entries without notice, you must give notice to cure to the LL. If the LL fails to cure (for this or other repairs), only then can you go to the next step. No judge would allow you to take the most severe step based on one or two violations over a period of 5 days, especially if there is no record of ever objecting to it Sorry, but that is how it works in court in the real world.