Mushrooms growing in my apartment!

[Andrew Stouse]

Hi everyone,

I suppose I am on the other side of what this forum is for, however I know many of you are well-versed in tenant/landlord laws so I would like to get your opinions!

I moved into my apartment last March and it is owned by a major property management company. I have had issue after issue in my apartment. Roaches are crazy in there. The AC unit was leaking for several weeks and I had to mop up the water almost every day. Then, once the leak was fixed, I noticed that there were mushrooms growing out of my baseboards. I sent photos to the leasing office and told them of the issue. They sent a guy with a bottle of bleach and water to spray all my baseboards. My personal property was damaged by not only the water but them spraying bleach on my belongings. In january, I called to let them know I wanted to end my lease and gave 60 days notice. They called 3-4 times the past two months to ask if I was renewing, I said no. Then I check my bill for this month, and it is almost double. They are charging me a rent increase, month to month fees, and several other fees. I asked why and they said I did not give them WRITTEN notice (I will be honest, after reading the lease it does say written notice and I did not provide that).

I talked to the manager and was nice, she would not budge. I talked to the manager and was assertive, and she did not budge. I am wondering, with the mushrooms that are currently growing out of my baseboards, am I able to break my lease? I am not even breaking it, I just want to be let go by the time my lease was supposed to end.