How can i break my lease without getting a bad reference on my rental history?

i have been living in my apartment complex since april 07 and it has been far from comfortable living. i have a 1 yr old son and this apartment is infested w/ insects :2 scorpions in my house,brown recluse spiders everywhere, there was a large snake outside my front door trying to get in, not to mention wrong w/ the apartment. i had a window that was broken for almost 2 mos before they came to fix it that someone i don't know broke and now they want me to pay for it. i dont have daycare so my son's dad comes over to watch him while i'm at work but the office swear he lives there. a couple near me left their keys in their door and some guys who were outside stole them and their car then they called the office and blamed it on us because they said we're the only black people here. i want to break my lease but i still have 6mo on my lease and dont want a bad rental history. they say they watch my house all the time and i know they cant do this. im scared of the cost of breaking a lease

i would like for u to all understand that this window was not broken by us and i do not have any traffic though my house because i have an infant son and i do not appove of this. me wanting to leave has nothing to do w/ this window, but the fact that these apartments give horrible cust service and have unsafe living conditions. someone over here has gotten shot a block away from me, i know 2 neighbors who were robbed in the same day, and an old lady that stays in the building next to me someone broke in her house and raped her. i do not feel this is somewhere i feel comfortable raising my son and i do not expect to move into heaven, but i do want somewhere to call home. i'm just trying to figure out the safest way out of my lease without damaging my rental history that i'm trying to build.

Once you've signed a lease, you're legally obligated to honor its terms as far as payment goes. There are very few legal ways to break a lease, and the illegal ones will indeed get you a bad reference.

Every apartment has insects. Unless you have an infestation of insects which live within walls (roaches, carpenter ants, bees, wasps), having scorpions and poisonous spiders will not be legal cause to break the lease. Just yucky and somewhat dangerous.

It does sound like the owners are not very good and do not want you as a tenant--but want your rent. I urge you and your son's dad to log his daycare hours, so you'll have a written record of when he came and went. He should also hang onto his rent receipts so he can prove he lives elsewhere, if it comes to that.

The landlord can accuse all he wants, but if the police are not checking you our for your neighbor's theft, let him. You know you're innocent. He can also watch you all he wants. Give him nothing to look at.

If it's really unbearable, consider seeking a sublet if you lease allows it. Sorry it's not a better place!

Most leases have a habitability clause -- I'd think you could win a housing court case by proving your landlord was not providing habitable living conditions. If you have a sublet provision, you could always try to find someone to sublet from you ... even if they pay less that you are paying, your paying the difference may be worth it to avoid the bad report on your credit record. If the landlords also felt you had stolen your neighbors things "because you were the only black people there", I'd think you could claim harassment as well, possibly breaking equal opportunity law. You have to be careful about taking landlords to court though -- I know in New York City, people who take their landlords to court are "blacklisted" and other landlords will not rent to them. Good luck.

Based on what you describe with you complaining to the leasing office and some complaints coming in against you, they might just prefer that you leave. If they don't want to release you from the lease, then keep complaining about the pests. They really don't have to let you out of the lease, but they might if you are more of a pain than good to them. It's not a great way to go, but might accomplish what you want without costing you more than a few phone calls to the office.

Are you sure your sons dad did nt brake the window? If you live by a garden downstairs you are prone to have insects, tohave a window broken doesnt mean is anythink wrong with the apt is just the window, that of course it should be repaired, maybe they are too many people in/out of your apt and your rntl office dont like, and by the way do you think you are going to move and find "paradise", be real... wait for the end of the lease and move and dont create ;prob lems por no one. Behave and you ll see how things work better.