Unique 'Tenant Breaking Lease' Issue – & Requesting Attorney Reco

[Matt Heerwald]

TENANT ISSUE ADVICE - AND LEGAL AID RECOMMENDATION

Hi all - seeking some advice and an attorney recommendation. Details are below (and many thanks in advance). If anyone has a real estate/rental attorney contact in the Austin area, would so appreciate his or her info.

Tl;dr: we condoized a property that we rent and sold part of the lot (which was vacant yard). Tenant now upset and wanting to break lease with no ramification to her because she feels like she’s no longer getting what she signed on for. We’re wondering if she has grounds to do this and/or if we’re at some sort of risk.

FULL DETAILS: We’ve owned a small 1940s house in a great area of Austin (78704). Last year, we condoized the lot and sold the part (“Unit A”) that has just been yard. A renter signed a 2-year lease, sign unseen, knowing that we had sold part of this lot and that at some point over her rental period, there would be construction. We made sure we were upfront about that.

She’s nearly a year into the lease and now wants to break it. Construction is about to begin. There have been some initial kinks to work out – like the new owner sending some of his people to the property without giving her or us notice. To be able to condoize and finalize the sale, it also turned out that we had to sell over 50% of the property, so it’s not an even land split. We have an agreement with the builder that he’s going to put in a fence that still gives the side with our house a front and back yard, though he technically owns a lot of that yard. So to be honest, we didn’t get into the details of that with our renter since she would still have her yard space.

However, she’s incredibly smart and determined and we’re now worried that if we don’t allow her to break her lease with zero consequences to her, she’d try to sue or take some sort of action. After just meeting with her, she explained that she’s fully aware of everything in the contract and laws in Texas, and she’s done her own research on what’s happening with the other half of the condo and that she discovered how much the other unit now “owns,” and this makes her too uncomfortable to stay. That importantly, knowing how much they own makes it feel like she’s no longer renting a space that she agreed to, because even if they did agree to put a fence up in a way that still allows for her to maintain a yard, the other guy still owns the property and could technically do whatever he wanted with it. She talked with a surveyor who freaked her out by saying that they own the front and backyards and that if they wanted, they could basically put a fence up from her back steps, around the house and to the front steps.

She also noted that “our lease contract includes XYZ Address, not ‘Unit B’ at XYZ Address.”

Apologies this is long – it just feels oddly complex with the condo regime and sale right as she became our tenant.

We are trying to see an appropriate attorney ASAP to understand what our options are and if we’re in any way at risk. In addition to that, we were wondering if this group could help with the below questions:

1. It sounds like she was passively aggressively suggesting that we mis-advertised the property and that this should allow her to break her lease – does it seem like she actually has grounds for that? The initial advertisement does say “the grassy half of the lot has recently been sold but is currently vacant.” As noted above, it didn’t end up working out to an even split of land. We did tell her that there would be construction.
2. How much of a problem might it be that we simply had the original address in the lease contract and not “Unit B” at the address?
3. If a tenant has asked to break a lease and this doesn’t end up being resolved amicably (ie, we don’t just let her off the hook at the year mark), what actions could be taken against us? I’m not sure if she has the time, money or desire to sue, or what she could sue for – I guess we’re trying to understand that.

Again, major thanks for reading this tome and for any insight. 

- Matt and Mary