How to break a lease

Due to flaky roommates, broken friendships or break ups, sometimes living on your own or with others just doesn’t work out. When the living environment becomes unbearable there isn’t much of a choice but to break a lease.

Alex Tuscano, a Scottsdale Community College student, said, “I’ve broken three leases. One of the reasons I broke a lease was because it was too expensive. I was paying for an apartment that was very small, had low water-pressure and uncovered parking. After a few months I packed up and moved back home.”

It can be costly to break a lease with having to fork out as much as three months of rent at once. What if there was someone to do it for you?

Arizona Tenant Advocates (Arizonatenants.com) is a sole proprietorship business that is dedicated to helping its clients break a lease. The group provides free telephone counseling and has created the Break the Lease Program. Some of the reasons used to break a lease are physical noncompliance around the premises or rental agreement flaws. Arizona Tenants Advocates will search for and identify violations made by its client’s landlord or apartment complex and will pursue an end to the lease legally.

Owner Ken Volk said, “We pay great attention to detail and are knowledgeable of the applicable laws.” The success rate for utilizing Arizona Tenants is “very high, we succeed in termination almost always,” Volk said. “Rarely the landlord commences legal action against the tenant and when that happens the tenant usually prevails.”

Mesa Community College transfer student John Foresman is another student who found himself in a rut.

“My roommate and I had been planning to move in together for awhile. A day after we signed the lease, he (Foresman’s roommate) told me his girlfriend was moving. After a few months I couldn’t stand living with her and had to get out," said Foresman. "I spoke with my apartment complex and was able to get relocated to another property within the same company and my roommate just got transferred to a smaller apartment. Doing this helped avoid all the fees we would have been charged.”

Arizona Tenant Association (ArizonaTeanantsunion.tripod.com) is another website focused on educating Arizona tenants on their rights that they have legally. It is also concerned about preventing alleviation of tenants in Arizona. To use the services of the Arizona Tenants Association, you must sign up to become a member for a small fee for as little as two months to one year.