Breaking a lease - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

enthused · 04-03-2007, 10:42 PM

I'm currently going to school in Victoria, and I'm living in a basement suite with two friends. We signed a year lease back in August, but didn't move in until September. Two of us are from Calgary, and one the other is from Vancouver, and we all plan to go home once we finish up our exams at the end of April. Unfortunately, we still have posession of our place from May until the end of July... even though we wont be living there.

Our landlords (who live above us) agreed that we could sublet the place for those final months, so long as they approve the people that we find. At first that seemed fine to us, but now that we've actually started advertising the place, no one seems to be too interested in it. Its not a terrible place, but its not very convenient to the school, and most students don't want to sign a lease where they would have to pay for the summer months.

We've started to do a bit of research on terminating the lease, but I was wondering if anyone here has any info or advice on how to go about doing so, or whether we even can. Any help would be much appeciated, I'm starting to stress about getting rid of this place, because none of us can afford to pay for it if we're not living in it!

Also... I would like to add that we've had a lot of trouble with the landlords... and their lack of dealing with problems we've had with the place. We had rats for several months, no handles or locks on our back doors, little to no heat, etc. Even after complaints, it took them a long time to deal with those situations, if they even did at all (we still have no handles or locks, and no heat).

Anyways... long story short, tell me about breaking a lease! Thank you!

Nufy · 04-03-2007, 10:44 PM

Say goodbye to your damage deposit and get the hell out of there ASAP.

ken0042 · 04-03-2007, 10:45 PM

No heat is reason to break a lease in Calgary. Get ahold of the landlord tennant board there.

Rats- call the health board.

Kipper3256 · 04-03-2007, 11:05 PM

Well if u have been paying your rent and "following" the rules of the lease the landlord HAS to fix the heat. In the form that you sign there is a section that states the landlord must fix anything that does not work in the suite including water, heat and other things like electrical problems.

enthused · 04-03-2007, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nufy

Say goodbye to your damage deposit and get the hell out of there ASAP.

I don't care about my damage deposit AT ALL, if it means I can peace it. But are there any legal formalities I need to go about?

photon · 04-03-2007, 11:48 PM

http://www.rto.gov.bc.ca/

I think he's suggesting that you just leave, and hope that the security deposit is enough to them to not make them come after you for it. Since you're out of province, it's unlikely they'll pursue you (it's a pain to go out of province), but your friend there could be screwed if they decide to repossess his stuff to pay for unpaid rent (I know it can be done in Alberta, not totally sure about BC).

If it's a fixed term lease, then you are obligated to pay it for the full term. The only way out early is if the landlord agrees to let you out early, or as you have said if they agree to let you sublet, which they've done.

For things like no locks or no heat, then you could have probably left if they went unresolved, but if the landlord eventually resolved those, then you are still obligated.

Look at it this way, if the situations were reversed and people were renting from you, what would you want them to do?

You committed yourself, the adult thing to do is to live up to your commitments. Try and work with them, let them know the subletting isn't working. Maybe they'll accept a reduced rent rate for the months you are gone (less work for them if it's empty)? Ask them to advertise it and if it rents before the end of your agreement then you are off the hook.

Either way, it's always better to try and find a resolution that works for everyone, rather than simply skipping out on a commitment simply because it doesn't suit you anymore.

enthused · 04-04-2007, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

Look at it this way, if the situations were reversed and people were renting from you, what would you want them to do?

I certainly wouldn't have allowed a rat problem to last for several months, first of all. But yes, I see what you mean, if I were renting to people I wouldn't want to have people skip out on me.

My intention is not to leave them high and dry, I do in fact have a conscience. I plan to keep looking for someone to sublet the place, but I would also like to know what my options are for ending a tenancy, if it needs to come to that.

thatguy · 04-04-2007, 12:16 AM

Calgary has rats?

RedDeerFan · 04-04-2007, 12:27 AM

I thought Alberta was rat free

enthused · 04-04-2007, 12:33 AM

As I said in my initial post... I'm living in Victoria.

FlameCity · 04-04-2007, 08:49 AM

Don't know if you've seen this . . . but it may (or may not) help:

Residential Tenancy Act
A Guide for Landlords and Tenants
in British Columbia
Revised October 2006

or

Gov. of BC Residential Tenancy Branch

photon · 04-04-2007, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enthused

My intention is not to leave them high and dry, I do in fact have a conscience. I plan to keep looking for someone to sublet the place, but I would also like to know what my options are for ending a tenancy, if it needs to come to that.

Basically for a fixed term tenancy (where you signed something saying you'd stay until a specific date), the only way out of it is if the landlord agrees to let you out, be that through subletting or some other agreement. As far as I could read, there's nothing in the law in BC that would help you out Though I didn't read it all in detail, those sites FlameCity posted are a good place to start to see what the law says about the landlord-tenant relationships there.

And I totally agree with you, as a landlord I would never let my properties get to the point where my tenants question if they want to live there at all due to the conditions, but there are some pretty scummy landlords out there.

RedHot25 · 04-04-2007, 09:11 AM

Why not just phone the board in BC? They will tell you pretty quick.

Can't you "leave" (with proper notice etc), but you still have to pay? Until they find someone to take it? Although they are likely not going to be in a hurry to rent it out again, as they know that they have rent/month coming in until your lease expires....

(don't quote me on this, we just had people below us do that this year).

fredr123 · 04-04-2007, 10:41 AM

We were in a similar situation in Calgary during my second year of university. We had a one year lease that ran from September 1 to August 31 but we all wanted out of there at the end of April. Our landlord was somewhat reasonable and agreed to let us out of the lease in exchange for one month's rent. We also cleaned the place like it had never been cleaned before.

In essence we were out our damage deposit but saved on four months of rent. The landlord had a month of vacant possession to show the place and get new renters in place which, given the market, wasn't too hard.

Of course, your results may vary. Depending on the landlord and the type of threats and accusations that may be tossed about, it might not work so well for you...

ken0042 · 04-04-2007, 10:52 AM

Fred, you are the second student in this thread who has mentioned that they signed a 1 year lease for an 8 month school term. I'm just curious why somebody would sign a term longer than they know they need the place for?

I'm also wondering if it is campus types of rental properties; how hard it would be for a landlord to get a new tenant during the summer months.

ernie · 04-04-2007, 10:55 AM

It all depends on the province. Some provinces you can break a lease with warning, while others you can not break a lease at all.

Call the landlords/tenant board and find out what the landlord-tenants act in your province says.

FireFly · 04-04-2007, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'm also wondering if it is campus types of rental properties; how hard it would be for a landlord to get a new tenant during the summer months.

Most places will only let you sign a 6 month or one year lease. It's to avoid having empty places in the summer.

enthused · 04-04-2007, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

Fred, you are the second student in this thread who has mentioned that they signed a 1 year lease for an 8 month school term. I'm just curious why somebody would sign a term longer than they know they need the place for?

I'm also wondering if it is campus types of rental properties; how hard it would be for a landlord to get a new tenant during the summer months.

Unfortunately, most places out here (that I've found at least) all required a one year lease. Which I find kind of unreasonable, since most students are only here for 8 months, but I guess landlords don't want to have an empty place and miss out on money for the other four months.

Anyways thanks for all the websites you guys have been posting, they've been pretty helpful. I'm going to keep doing some reading up on this, and eventually talk to my landlord about what he's willing to negotiate. In the mean time, I guess I will keep hoping I can find someone to sublet!

But yeah, thanks again guys!

fredr123 · 04-04-2007, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

Fred, you are the second student in this thread who has mentioned that they signed a 1 year lease for an 8 month school term. I'm just curious why somebody would sign a term longer than they know they need the place for?

I'm also wondering if it is campus types of rental properties; how hard it would be for a landlord to get a new tenant during the summer months.

The posters above summed up the situation quite well. There weren't a lot of decent places near the university for reasonable rental prices. We were at the mercy of the landlord who wanted a one year lease. We did what we had to do in those days.

Of course, as luck would have it, that was the year of the last transit strike. The bus stop in front of our house became worthless. I ended up having to walk over a mile each way to school. In the snow no less. Between that, the stress from dealing with roommate and landlord issues and my inability to afford more than one meal (plus toast for breakfast) per day, I lost about 40 lbs.

But back on topic, the rental system heavily favors the landlord in this regard. Everyone knows students will only be around for 8 months. Nobody wants to have an empty house and have to find renters to fill the 4 month gap in the summer time. The solution is to place all the risk on the tenant and make them sign a one year lease. The tenants will be liable for rental payments over the summer less they work out a suitable alternative arrangement (eg. what I did, find subtenants, etc.)

photon · 04-04-2007, 11:40 AM

Some of the students I've spoken with given Alberta's current zero vacancy simply realize they'll have to pay for 1 year of rent even though they know they're not going to use it. So even though their rent is $800 / month, they budget $1200 / month to pay for the unused months.

Some keep their places simply because finding a place to rent the next year is so difficult.

It's definately not a tenant friendly situation right now. That's what happens when you add the population of Red Deer into the province in one year and everyone is looking for somewhere to live.