Is there a way for me to end my lease without penalty since I was not informed ofa roach problem?

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Is there a way for me to end my lease without penalty since I was not informed ofa roach problem?

I have been in the apartment for less than 1 week. I asked the leasing consultant directly if the apartment building had issues with bugs, and was not given a direct answer. She responded by stating pest control is available weekly for residents (which was misleading and uninformative). Had I known the building suffered from roaches, I would have reconsidered my decision to rent. Leasing doesn’t consider it a “problem”, and so that is why I wasn’t informed. I saw numerous roaches in basement level, heard management mention bugs in 2nd floor apartment, and saw several baby roaches and others in my 10th floor unit.

Asked on August 4, 2011 Georgia

Answers:

FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

If you have a written lease with your landlord, read it carefully in that its terms and conditions control your obligations to the landlord and vice versa in the absence of conflicting state law concerning your question about terminating your lease due to vermin infestation.

For you to start the process of rescinding your lease based upon the landlord's leasing consultant to fully answer your questions about insect issues beforeyou entered into your lease, you need to write both the landlord and the leasing agent a letter (keeping a copy for future reference) that you were mislead about the answer to your question about no insect (cockroach problems) before you signed your lease and the facts for such statement, that you would have never signed the lease had you known the true facts about the cockroach problem and you want out of your lease because of the material misrepresentations that caused you to enter into the agreement.

Wait for the response. If it is unacceptable, you should then go down to the local health department to make a complaint about the cockroaches and request an inspection. Hopefully it happens and a written report is made where you get a copy. If the written report states that the conditions are bad with respect to the cockroach problem, you will have a a good basis to then send a written notice to terminate your lease to your landlord with a stated date of departure.

Good luck.


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