Help needed getting out of lease with awful neighbors!

[David Williams]

I have some family members here in Denver in a bit of a hellhole of a rental situation. They live in the lower level of an up/down 4-plex. The residents above are chronically violating their lease and a true nuisance to live below. They are loud at all hours, smoke indoors, do not pick up dog poop, use marijuana and other drugs in home. My family members have attempted to speak directly with upstairs tenants to resolve issues and are only met with passive aggressiveness and denials. The property managers have been contacted, multiple complaints filed and there is no resolution. Property management company has a history of poorly management.  Situation has gotten to the point its no longer habitable to live below with noise, smoke and upstairs tenants controlling temperatures and keeping lower unit cold in winter months. They have attempted to work out an exit with the property manager, but are only being met with resistance. There is $500 charge to break lease and potential loss of security deposit. They are looking for a way out, is this a time to involve an attorney or are attorney charges likely to exceed breaking the lease.  I have single family units with great tenants and personally have not ran into issues of this nature. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I

[JD Martin]

Originally posted by @David Williams:

I have some family members here in Denver in a bit of a hellhole of a rental situation. They live in the lower level of an up/down 4-plex. The residents above are chronically violating their lease and a true nuisance to live below. They are loud at all hours, smoke indoors, do not pick up dog poop, use marijuana and other drugs in home. My family members have attempted to speak directly with upstairs tenants to resolve issues and are only met with passive aggressiveness and denials. The property managers have been contacted, multiple complaints filed and there is no resolution. Property management company has a history of poorly management.  Situation has gotten to the point its no longer habitable to live below with noise, smoke and upstairs tenants controlling temperatures and keeping lower unit cold in winter months. They have attempted to work out an exit with the property manager, but are only being met with resistance. There is $500 charge to break lease and potential loss of security deposit. They are looking for a way out, is this a time to involve an attorney or are attorney charges likely to exceed breaking the lease.  I have single family units with great tenants and personally have not ran into issues of this nature. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I

 The simple answer here is that they're going to have to decide how much they value their sanity, if it is worth $500 assuming they've done no damage to their unit. I know what route I would choose.

Essentially what you are asking is can they leave for free. The short answer is probably not. The only thing I didn't quite get about your post was the "upstairs unit controlling temperature of downstairs unit" part - are you saying that there's one thermostat in this building for 4 units? What do the other tenants say about that? Beyond that, if the upstairs tenants are not doing anything that gets them cited by the law or hauled off to jail, then they are going to have to decide what's more important - their $500 or their sanity. If it were my family members (and I liked them) I'd just give them the $500 to get out of their lease if I believed all that to be true. And then I could tell them to quit complaining when they pocketed the $500 and stayed right where they are, which I get an underlying sense is what will happen if you give them the $500.

After all, they could document everything, pay the $500 and leave, and then sue the other tenants or the PM in small claims court to get their $500 back and maybe even moving expenses.

I grew up in an apartment in a ghetto. What you described is just a lot of what you get living in an apartment. It's why most people prefer having their own home.