Legal advice on tenant rights please?

We signed a lease to an apartment but din't recieve an actual tour of the apartment we would be renting. After we got the keys we went up there and found out that it was horrible. Smelled of mold, very creaky floors, walls were paper thin and we could hear a loud entertainment system through the wall. Anyways, my 90 year old grandmother who will be living with us couldn't take it. We did not move in and we turned in our keys to the office and left. The lady at the office mentioned that she would report us to corporate for breaking a lease. She said, "Good luck." But we felt decieved. We put a stop payment on the first month's rent check that included 2/5 of the security deposit. The other part of the security deposit was the $300 holding fee that we paid 20 days ago. Couldn't stop payment on that. Too late. The lease contract said that we could be held responsible for the security deposit if we broke the lease. Where do I stand legally here. Will things turn out alright for me?

You need to talk to a lawyer because rental rights vary from state to state. In Michigan, the holding fee could be kept, but not the security deposit. A cheap way to find out what the law says would be to contact a local oraganization that helps protect legal rights. You could also try going to the city hall and asking what your rights are. Although, a lot of city halls aren't very helpful. If you do go that route, ask the person whom you would file a law suit with. You can sometimes get free info this way.

Find an attorney who specializes in landlord/tennant relations. This is not a very good forum to seek legal advice.

you might need a lawyer and have to go to court and might win see as how you didn't move in and conditions where not what you expected. otherwise just move on and put it down to a bad experince

Why would you sign a lease without seeing the apartment? Depending on what you signed and the verbage used, they can take you to court for the check you stopped payment on and the costs they incurred from the stop payment. Good Luck, I don't think you have a leg to stand on...sorry KG

look up contact info for tenant/landlord board for your state. They will assist with the contract and help to find a way out of this.

They'll turn out.

First, never rent a place you haven't seen! How can you know you are getting a good price? You weren't deceived, you didn't do your homework.

You apparently broke your lease. You will lose your security deposit. You will owe them rent for the period of time it takes them to re-advertise and find a new tenant to move in...you have a contract (probably for a year lease) and they have the right to charge you up until they find a tenant to replace you. They DO have to look and find one though.

If you do not pay, they can take you to court, they can ding your credit and make it difficult to be considered a good renter in the future.

What do you consider all right?