Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Can I break a rental lease when carbon monoxide is leaking into the house and it has happened before?

Landlord appears to have failed to correct this problem in the past and has reocurred. The gas company has records of the problems at this residence.Can I break a rental lease when carbon monoxide is leaking into the house and it has happened before?
YES you can! It has happened to me!





Call the fire department or city to come over and take some carbon monoxide readings. There is someone at the city that does building inspections. They will come for free, or they will bill your landlord. Then write your landlord a certified letter telling them of the problem, asking them to fix it or telling them when you will be moving out.





You will be able to get the city inspector to go to court for you, because you don't need to put your family in jeapordy.





If you do not follow the right avenues, the landlord (if they are jerks) could protest and say that they knew nothing blah blah blah, but the judge threw it out of court in my case because I had my paperwork together, bases covered.





Good Luck. Don't let raunchy landlords kill your family.Can I break a rental lease when carbon monoxide is leaking into the house and it has happened before?
being a land lord myself, I will say yes if you give them plenty of time to repair the problem. Have the house tested and report it to the landlord . If they refuse to fix problem give your notice to vacate and consult an attorney.
move out if he takes you to court show proof!
Note that the place that you are living in must be made habitable and carbon monoxide or fungus can make it inhabitable and therefore you should not be bound to it.





Check with the local authorities as I believe you have rights with respect to having the leasee provide you with safe and appropriate living conditions.





Be careful though, if the building is deemed unsafe, they may close it down and request that you find somewhere else to live.
Actually, it depends on the terms of the lease AND the interpretation of the landlord's actions on the problem. If the landlord has taken all reasonable action to remedy the issue, and it still is a problem, then pretty much no, the judge will rule in the landlord's favor. Say for example the landlord has been working on it for 2 weeks and it was fixed but now not, and landlord cant get anyone over until Monday. If you broke the lease, you'd be in the wrong, because the landlord is taking action that is reasonable.


But if it's been going on for...a year, and the landlord is giving you the runaround, etc then yes, you can get out of it.


Call HUD and speak to them...www.hud.gov
Call the health department first.
call the board of health and I'm sure they could answer that.
Sure can, get a fire inspector over with a meter and if the levels are high enough, he'll condemn the place. Therefore by law you have to move out.
if the landlord has not taken action and it is the second time i would get out of there no matter what the lease says. carbon monoxide is detromental to your health especially if there are kids in the house.
No. Can't break the lease. What you can do is go to your local housing court and demand a rent escrow, where your money will NOT go to the landlord until the problem is fixed and verified.





For something as serious as carbon monoxide, I'm sure it will be easy to get.





You could tell your landlord that this is your next step unless he fixes it now. That might just do the trick and save you the time and money.





Meanwhile, you just gotta make sure you are clearing the air in your place constantly. Get a fan that blows out a window.
Terms in Standard Leases...you can withhold rent until the problem is corrected. Write him a letter and send it by certified mail, letting him know the situation. Document your findings with gas company and he'll get to work on fixing the problem when he doesn't get your money. Do pay rent until he fixes the problem, but when fixes the problem paying him his back rent.
Yes you can and in some states you can stop paying rent until it is fixed and you can bring the landlord to court and get 3X's the amount of rent back

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