Bad lease, bugs and safety issues How to leave?

By Tenant

Hi, I live in Tennessee. We have lived in this apartment for 17mos now. A lot of our problems started when neighbors moved in 3weeks before our 1st lease was up. Our apartments are setup like duplexes to give you a layout idea. The new neighbors’ boyfriend decided one night to beat the crap out of her, bust in her door, break out the windows and steal her car. I had to call the police and they took over 30mins to respond. I also found out the boyfriend had a gun. Guns go through walls and my baby’s room is right next to their rooms. Anyway, I felt very unsafe after all of this and by our lease they should have been evicted within 3days of the episode. Instead the apartment waited 2weeks to fix the windows and we ran out of timeto find a new place. After that during the 2week transient period of not knowing if we were staying or going, we had phone calls from the apartment management to both myself and my husband by 2 different people saying that if we signed the new lease by the end of the month our rent would stay the same. We go in and renew the lease because we have no where else to go. Well rent rolls around and we recieve a note saying we still owe them another $50. I have no idea what for. I go in and talk with the manager. He pulls out the lease and shows me where an actual number for the rent amount should have been typed in and we find typed out word for word the amount that is being deducted from the standard rent and the place saying the final rent amount and dates tha it is valid blank. It says we will recieve a deduction of $ one hundred and forty.  It doesn’t say from what though. He turns another page and shows me that marketrate is $720 and says our rent is 140 from 720…so 580. Nevermind the two other blanks he says. I wondered if the lease was even valid at this point. Because the rent went up we haven’t been able to pay it on time since and he accepted partial payments, then he moved to another complex and the new lady says she won’t take partial payments which after late fees bumps our rent up to 645mo. I don’t even make 600 a mo and my husband barely makes 1100mo. So now we can’t afford the place at all. And the last two things are ants and handicap accessibility. Our apartment, the neighbors’ apartment and several other units are all super invetsted with black ants. They get into everything, bite and regardless of how much I clean they stay. The office is aware of the problem as everyone complains about them,but they don’t do anything about them. Last I am expecting baby #2. I already had back issues and now I have been considered temporarly handicapped. I am getting a handicap placard and have been given strict restrictions on walking and stair usage. I may have to use a wheelchair soon too. Our apartment is a 3bdrm, 2 story townhouse. I can no longer climbthe satirs both inside and outside. We don’t have 3bdrm handicap apartments here, only 2bdrm and they are actually higher in rent. I am wondering if I have good grounds to terminate my lease early? It’s not up til March of next year, but my back, peace of mind, and safety can’t wait til then.

Our lease does say that under no circumstances can the lease be terminated early. It does say we can be evicted for no longer meeting program money caps on income per month, but even  if evicted we still lose our 350 pet deposit, 150 security deposit, and have to pay them 1 months rent and a fee of 1680 within 2weeks to break the lease. I don’t have that kind of money to break the lease. I actually don’t mind them keeping the depositsso long as we can leave without paying anything else. The apartment does some small paint touchups, blinds replaced, carpet cleaning and some carpet patches need replaced by the door but nothing major.

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