Can I break my lease within 45 days and get my rent back that I paid in advance?
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Can I break my lease within 45 days and get my rent back that I paid in advance?
I feel like my landlord is not telling me the truth about some damage that was supposedly done by my 6 week puppy. She doesn’t have any pictures and she’s trying to charge me for a cleaning bill and other things and being very rude towards me and saying I can’t have that breed but there are 2 other residents that have the same breed dog that live there?
Asked on September 7, 2011 under Real Estate Law, South Carolina
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Whether or not you can break your lease or not depends upon the terms of the written lease (assuming you have one) in that its terms and conditions control the obligations owed by you to the landlord and vice versa in the absence of conflicting state law as well as the length of term that your lease is for.
If your lease is a month-to-month, then you can serve your landlord with a thirty (30) day notice of the termination of your lease.
If the dispute that you are having with your landlord is over the new dog that you received and the alleged damage it caused, I do not see a basis for you to terminate your lease if it is beyond a month-to-month term and recover monies paid in advance unless your landlord is willing to voluntarily end the balance of the term you have for the lease in writing.
Good luck.
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