Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia
Apartment repairs and poor living conditions...
I live in an old college duplex apartment that is in poor condition. I was clearly aware of its condition when I signed the lease a year and a half ago; however, before I renewed the lease for this year, a new management group took over the property, inspected it, and made all sorts of vague promises about ''getting this place fixed up'' and so on. 7 months later, and no repairs or concern from them AT ALL. Recently things have been falling apart--the tiles are falling off the bathroom walls, the foundation is cracked (we live in the basement) and there is a serious risk of a severe structural failure, and the ceiling tiles are about to collapse. There is mold b/c the dry wall is rotting from the inside out. Realize that I'm neglecting to mention many other aesthetic concerns. The management group is promising to fix the main problems, but it will clearly take weeks. We'd like to sublease it in order to get out of here next semester, but we can't sublease it is this condition. We've asked the rental group to make reasonable accommodations in the mean time, but they act like that's ludicrous. At what point are they in breach of lease, and what accommodations are they required to make in such circumstances?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Apartment repairs and poor living conditions...
The grim reality under Virginia landlord-tenant law is that it's unlikely that what you've described thus far would involve breaches of your lease serious enough to constitute what the law considers to be effectively a constructive eviction and which would allow you to terminate your lease prematurely and to quit the premises wihout penalty.
However, in the absence of that, I'd say you're pretty much stuck with the place until your lease naturally expires (my opinion).
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