My girlfriend and I have been leasing our current residence for about 10 months now. We have two other roommates, one being the owner of the...

Question

My girlfriend and I have been leasing our current residence for about 10 months now. We have two other roommates, one being the owner of the property. For the duration of our stay, the owner has neglected to fix a majority of repairs needed on the premises. Although she has a room in the townhouse, she is paying,maintaining a lease, and living at another location. She is trying to tell us that since she's the owner and pays 30% of the electric bill that this counts as living here. Upon move in, none of the common areas were cleaned or properly maintained. Any time she has fixed things, it's taken months and several complaints to get the task accomplished. For almost 4 months, our kitchen supplies sat on the floor in the living room because we were waiting for her to make some space for us. After waiting all this time, we decided to clean out some of the cabinets and put our stuff away since on average we only saw her there once a month. Some of her relatives came to visit recently and they just came and went as they pleased, touched and used our belongings, and even took some things which have yet to be returned. On March 28th she told us we could sign another lease, and now all of a sudden she's saying that she has family coming and that she is going to rent the property to them. We also put a bookcase, desk, and hung a few pictures in the downstairs area which she is claiming we are not allowed to do because we are leasing a room and not the entire establishment. However, no where on our lease does it state that we are explicitly renting just a room. It does state that we "shall make no alterations to the buildings or improvements on the Premises or construct any building or make any other improvements on the Premises without the prior consent of Landlord." I was under the impression that this meant structural/permanent changes and was not applicable to having a desk, bookcase, and some pictures in the living room. The only thing I think we are truly in violation of is having 2 bunnies instead of the one that is stated in our lease. However, the owner has been aware of this fact for about 8 months now and has not cared to mention it until recently. Since she has failed to maintain the property and has now stated that we can no longer live there despite previously telling us we could sign another lease, would we be in the wrong for vacating the property before our lease is up at the end of June? Thanks.

Answer

What does your lease state about vacating the property. Send her a 30 day notice that you plan to terminate your lease at the appointed time. Also state in your letter that no where in your lease is that a paragraph about other people coming and going in the unit and that if she intends to allow another tenant then she will need to void the current lease, give you back your deposit and give you reasonable notice.