Breaking a lease because of no Egress window on 3rd floor bedroom

[Jeremy Mullin]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this question. I have a college town rental property and added an egress window to a basement bedroom- the additional bedroom is worth about $650/month so it's a no brainer.  Morally, I'd never want a kid living in a room that he couldn't get out of if there was a fire, legally I'm certain I wouldn't want that either. Unfortunately I don't think safety come in to every landlord's mind, which brings me to my question.  My son is living in a 3rd floor room of a college house (different campus than mine) and has two triangle shaped windows in his room, 28" x 28" so no where near the required egress area of 5.7 cu ft (although he could fit through them if he had a step stool to get to them).  I'm fairly certain knowing what I know now that the landlord should not be renting that room out to tenants. Does anyone have any opinions on if something like this (as well as no emergency ladder to escape-although we ended up buying him one for our piece of mind) is grounds for breaking a lease?  As a landlord, I'm not too interested in hurting a small business guy doing exactly what I'm doing. As a father, I'll do what I can to make sure my son lives in a safe place and isn't penalized financially for trying to attain that.

[Matt Devincenzo]

So let's back up a bit...a place of any sort that was built to the code at the time of construction may continue to be used for that function even if it no longer would meet minimum standards for today. That can be more or less critical when we're talking about code items like a home with little to no insulation vs. egress windows. While a to code egress may not exist, that doesn't mean the 'bedroom' can't be used, especially if it was permitted and built that way. Or more likely (an assumption based on location and typical age of the home style you describe) it was built before codes were a consideration but was still legally constructed as it is currently used. 

So that said personally I'd likely stand firm on the fact that the property was rented as is and while 28"X28" may not be todays 'code' it by your own admission is sufficient for him to egress if needed. The minimum egress dimensions are I believe 24" tall and 20" wide, however it also needs 5.7 SF net clear. The 28" by 28" window meets both of these dimensions and is only ~3/4" shy of what is needed on both sides to meet the net clear standard...so it's very close especially if the age of the home is what I believe it may be. 

If you really made an issue of it I may relent and let you go, but I'd most likely still impose lease break penalties etc. The reality is you should talk to your son and equip him to evaluate these things himself. Life is a risk and we all decide how big a risk to take. If this were any of my kids I'd point out the risk and tell them what I would consider in renting a place, and then I'd let them evaluate how they want to handle their life. If they stay through their lease fine so be it, if they break it and pay the fees also fine. In both scenarios though I'd impress upon them that they are responsible for entering into a lease, and they need to be responsible for exiting it however they decide to do that.