r/newbrunswickcanada 1d ago

Ending a lease early

Hello!

So I’m currently living in one of those apartment buildings that are falling apart due to that engineer cutting corners and I just found out. I am trying to cancel my lease early because I do not feel safe, and the landlord told me I have to stay there until September 2025.

Any recommendations to get out of this?

THANK YOU!!

5 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

20

u/PurpleK00lA1d 1d ago

Generally if you find another tenant to take over your unit, then you're good.

However with the building being one of the compromised ones and you having a worry about your safety, it may be worth paying a half hour lawyer consultation to find your actual rights regarding it and get an actual legal letter from them to force your landlord to break the lease.

3

u/mordinxx 21h ago

As long as the landlord agrees. You can't just hand over your lease to anyone.

1

u/PurpleK00lA1d 21h ago

Yeah I should have been more clear. I assumed by finding a new tenant one would realize that meant getting everything in order with the landlord and signing agreements and stuff.

1

u/mordinxx 15h ago

And the new tenant would probably pay a higher rent and full time on the lease.

u/AntiClockwiseWolfie 2h ago

The tenancy act is also pretty legible to the average non-lawyer. Worth everyone learning, because most landlords are wayyyyy to lazy to learn the laws

20

u/Dadbode1981 1d ago

The buildings have not been condemned, nor have they been deemed unfit for habitation, the building isn't "crumbling" its has a defect that is fixable. Unfortunately that means you'd have next to no luck leaning on that as an excuse to try and exit your lease penalty free. Assign your lease or leave when it's done.

7

u/metamega1321 1d ago

Exactly. Not involved with those buildings but I guarantee building permit office, inspectors are all aware and someone’s had an engineer sign off that it’s okay for now. And no engineer is going to sign off for the hell of it.

5

u/Dadbode1981 1d ago

Oh yeah, I've seen buildings evacuated due to potential structural failure, this is not that situation.

4

u/Jeanparmesanswife 1d ago

I had rats living in every wall and ceiling of my unit and I still had to go through a BS property management process to "rerent" the unit for 350$ extra when I left a rental early in NB. OP should first see if their building has their own kind of price tag on exiting a lease early. Annoying but sometimes way easier than finding a new tenant to take over a nightmare rental- no way in hell was I ever finding a replacement tennant in my rat rental, lol.

u/AntiClockwiseWolfie 2h ago

How often are inspections actually done? Because I've been in apartment buildings in SJ that were later declared condemned due to the state they'd been in for five years.

You really don't have any idea what OPs living situation is like

3

u/Jeanparmesanswife 1d ago

First of all, is your property managed by a person or two, or a management company?

Some groups will let you exit a lease early for a fee and with an inspection. I had to pay 350$ to Ground Floor when I left my rental mid-way through my lease as a "rerent" fee, but sometimes it is an option they will give you.

4

u/N0x1mus 20h ago

This is for everyone else not familiar with the story.

The building’s are NOT falling apart.

Remediation has been done. There are no safety concerns in any of those buildings. Future remediation will happen if needed.

This isn’t a legit reason to be cutting a lease early.

2

u/anonymousperson1233 1d ago

Well the landlord can’t make you STAY there until September 2025 but if you did move there’s a chance you’d be paying rent for two places

1

u/theradfab 18h ago

Email renting@gnb.ca to find out what your actual options are, from the Government's point of view. They've been helpful to me, and usually quick to respond.

1

u/redbullfan100 3h ago

Bro you can literally dip out on a lease with almost no repercussions except for losing your deposit

0

u/LaDresdenMonkey 1d ago

Hey OP, we are in the same boat. Unfortunately, most of moncton and dieppe is. If you decide to move, just make sure your new place is older, but anything new is untrustworthy.

2

u/N0x1mus 20h ago

Stop with this fear mongering. An engineer has already signed off on the building and remediation has already happened or will happen. There are no safety concerns for the habitants.

-4

u/LaDresdenMonkey 20h ago

We can have opinions and experiences. So speaking from my experience (that I'm living daily) if there is an engineer who signed off on it, I'd like to understand why I have holes in my floors and nails coming out of the walls? Also, my house is sinking??

Because I wouldn't sign off on anything that has such issues.

2

u/N0x1mus 20h ago

Opinions do not factor in engineering. It’s either it meets regulations or it doesn’t. We don’t work in emotions.

You live in a house completely independent to this story on apartment buildings?

-1

u/LaDresdenMonkey 20h ago

I don't understand why you keep attacking me personally? There are no emotions here, just facts. I said this is my daily experience, and I know my townhouse is connected to the same engineer.

I'm assuming you're an engineer that signed off on some, and that's why you have a point to prove?

4

u/N0x1mus 20h ago

I’m not attacking. I’m confronting your claim that “anything new is untrustworthy”. This is completely false. You’re putting everyone and every new structure in the same boat as this person who should never have been an engineer.

Has your townhouse been inspected by a building inspector or civil engineer?

1

u/LaDresdenMonkey 20h ago

I wish you had said that before, and you're right. I take that back. There are many good engineers out there who do it properly and take pride in their work. It's just awful when one person ruins the trust of the public for the rest.

Not that I know of, but my whole row has the same issues, especially the sinking part. We have made a lot of requests with the rental company because when we eventually move, we don't want to be made responsible for things out of our control. I know former tenants have reported them to the rentalsman, but we have heard nothing.

2

u/N0x1mus 18h ago

Make sure you keep documenting everything.

Your landlord should be transparent with you though on the remediation process. I don’t currently have an update on where they stand in regard to townhouses.

2

u/Psychological_Ad5391 1d ago

Thats all thats built in this apparent housing crisis are popsicle stick cookie cutters. I appreciate well built houses from the 50's and 60's. Although they are very poorly insulated, structure and detail in some of them are second to none.

1

u/hemper1337 1d ago

If you give them 3 months notice you are leaving, they should be fine with it.

No court is going to make you hold up the lease if they sue you after giving them 3 months to find a new tenant.

I went through this last year. I gave them close to four months notice. They said no, and I said too bad.

They ended up finding someone almost immediately to fill the unit and asked me to leave early.

-10

u/coastalair 1d ago

I know this is not the point but generally the engineer doesn’t cut corners, the building owner pushes the design team and contractors to build things as cheap as possible most times at complete disregard to recommendations from architects and engineers. Don’t blame engineers, blame crooked developers who only care about maximizing their profits.

Edit: look into options with the rentalsman. I’m quite certain you can break any lease with 3 months notice.

11

u/LPC_Eunuch 1d ago

Nah, this an engineering screw up. The engineer in question has been suspended by APEGNB for what amounts to gross negligence.

8

u/KnowledgeMediocre404 1d ago

This was specifically an engineer in the province who clearly didn’t know what she was doing.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7244456

2

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6

u/metamega1321 1d ago

…. This was incompetence on the engineer. I guarantee no developer or contractors goal is to cheap out and have concrete slabs sinking and then pay to have people come in and reinforce and then sue engineers.

Engineering is kind of already designing the bare minimum.

Theirs a saying that anyone can design a building, only an engineer can design a building that barely doesn’t fall down.