Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Breaking a Lease
Over the past month, my husband and I have been fighting rats/mice in our apartment. When we first discovered droppings, we immediately let our apartment manager know. Because it was Labor Day weekend, she gave us some glue traps and sent an exterminator the following week. Two rats were caught that weekend. The exterminator put poison down, and about 2-3 days later, we found a dying rat under the refridgerator. About 1 1/2 weeks ago, we found new droppings and called the manager again. They sent out the exterminator again to remove the dishwasher and set traps. He also found holes that he sealed. Another rat was caught that night. Two days ago, I found new droppings in one of the kitchen drawers. When I opened another drawer to look for more droppings, a rat jumped out at me.
My question is...Can I legally break my lease and get my security deposit back even though the apartment manager and exterminator continue to try to take care of the problem? Each time they come out, they say it is taken care of permenantly. I am disgusted by the problem and it does not go away. We have lived there since September 2000 and just signed a new one-year lease.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Breaking a Lease
Although they are taking care of the rat problem as it occurs, they are obviously not taking care of the root of the problem, which is how are the rats getting into the building.
Send a letter to the manager, giving them 30 days to find the source of the problem and to eliminate it. If they fail to do so, you will consider it a "constructive eviction" and terminate the tenancy, with expectation of a full refund of the security deposit.
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