Renter’s Advice and Resources

You’ve found the perfect apartment, and you couldn’t be happier. After a week of inner debate, you’ve finally gotten over the fact that the rent is a little bit more than you had originally intended, but the apartment is the epitome of elegance and comfort, and you just have to have it. I mean, you can deal with spending a little less on groceries each month, can’t you? But read closer… a $500 pet deposit? Can you deal with giving Fluffy away? Hidden fees are a huge part of finding the right apartment. Fees differ between complexes, and it’s up to you to ask the management about what these fees are for, and by how much they’re going to deplete your shopping funds.

Desperate times call for… desperate measures

Your apartment is so awful that you need to get out now. The management, however, really doesn’t want to let you go. Maybe it’s because you’re one of few renters left who actually pay rent and/or don’t sell drugs out of your apartment. Whatever the reason, you’ve gotta go—but it ain’t gonna be easy. Here are some highly unadvisable—wholly unadvisable, really—ways to get out of your apartment lease.

Your apartment at “Buena Vista Village” looks out on a junkyard, is infested with roaches, your next-door neighbors are running a meth lab, your upstairs neighbor is a professional tap-dancer, your carpeting still smells like the urine of the previous tenant’s cats (which she definitely wasn’t allowed to have), your car has been broken into three times in the past month, and there are bullet holes in one wall of the complex that haven’t been covered up in the whole time you’ve been there.