Paying to terminate a lease after being displaced by Hurricane Ike

[amycjo]

I'm a student as Texas A&M University at Galveston, which was recently affected by Hurricane Ike. Due to the damages to the buildings and infrastructure to Galveston Island, the administration at Texas A&M University at Galveston decided to move the entire student population to the main Texas A&M campus at College Station. While living in Galveston, I stayed in an apartment very close to the university. I had planned on moving out in December 2008 because I was going to graduate at that time, and had told the management about this. The apartment and university are on a small island separate from Galveston island which is connected to Galveston Island by a single bridge which was severely damaged during the storm, making it unable to pass, therefore keeping the tenants from getting to their property left in the apartments. Because of this, many tenants cannot see the condition of their property, let alone retrieve any of it, and have been at the mercy of the owner to tell us how the property fared. He claims there was no damage, but I've heard others say some flood damage occurred on the first floor. My apartment was located on the second floor, and though I realize though I may not have lost my property to flood damage, mold will most definitely overtake it. I recently checked the website for the apartment and noticed that the owner had posted a new update saying that the tenants must pay a $400 fee and be moved out by September 30, 2008 in order to terminate the lease for those students making the move to Texas A&M at College Station, or the tenant would have to continue to pay monthly rent for an apartment that is unlivable. In addition, I paid my rent for the month of September back on September 1st and there was no mention of returning the security deposit. I found a few Q&A forums about this sort of thing, and they mentioned something about the tenant only being entitled to a return on monthly rent if the owner decides the apartment needs to be shut down and the tenants moved out for repairs, but nothing about the tenants paying a fee which is more than some of their monthly rents. Any advice here? It makes me sick knowing my parents would have to pay for this in addition to the new expenses of moving to College Station. They've been so helpful to me through this time, and I really don't want them to get, for lack of a better word, screwed.

Thank you!

 

[sweetpeasmom]

Displaced Sea Aggies!

Thanks for the post! My daughter is a student at Texas A&M Galveston and tenant of the University Apts. as well. I think we will have better luck if the tenants and parents sick together as a group, "power in numbers"! I did receive an e-mail today from housing at TAMUG about this issue and was told that they would see if the university could intervene in some way and that they thought that since you all aren't able to live in the apartments because the landlord has not been able to provide power or running water after two wks then the lease should automatically be broken. For the record, they did state that they don't know this as fact and that we should look at the Texas state renters laws.

We do plan on going Saturday to collect all of her belongings and will provide the landlord with a letter to cancel her lease though not sure about paying the $400.00. Since the landlord owns a rather large construction co. in Galveston, I'm quite sure that none of the units will be vacant long because many construction workers will need housing during the rebuilding phase on the island.

I am so sorry for all of the hardship you are going through and truly wish you the best! It would be helpful if we could all get together for discussion before this weekend.

Keep up the Sea Aggie spirit!

Gig'Em Aggies!