subleasee with 3 kids need help!

[momof32010]

I am a mother of three young kids and needed to find a place that was a better environment than my old apartment. I thought I had when I found tenants at another location that was moving and needed someone to sublease for 4 and a half months. We signed a hand written agreement about price and things of that sort. Then come to find out they never told the landlords about me or my kids. They lied to me about many things to get me into this place and made it seem to good to be true like my prayers were answered well I guess come to find out it was to good to be true. I have paid my rent to them up to the end of May, and now being i found out this is an illegal situation I want out, but I am supposed to be here until mid July according to our hand written contract. Due to our situation of it being illegal am I legally allowed to find another dwelling and vacate without prosecution? And I also have a signed receipt for a returnable deposit written in tenants hand writting and signed by tenant so am I able to get that returned if I do vacate as soon as I can find another residence... legal residence this time. Please help. I don't like hiding my kids nor myself that I live here and I don't like how things have went down nor that its illegal and I was lied to. I have also tried to contact the original tenants today with no prevail.

 

[mightymoose]

You can leave any time but you will have difficulty getting your deposit back. You can sue for the deposit and win your case, but probably still never see the money.
You can also stay put til July and keep things on a friendly level so you can get your money back a little easier... assuming you trust them to give it back.

 

[army judge]

You have some other options.
Think about it.

What if you stopped paying your crooked "landlord"??

If you did, he'd have to evict you.
Or, the real landlord would try to evict you.

That could take 6-8 weeks, before a judge ordered you out!
A landlord can only ask you to leave.
If you ignore the request, you'd have to be evicted.

In the interim you cound save your money by not paying rent.

Your defense at eviction would be the illegal sublet.

A judge could order the crooked "landlord" to refund you your deposit.

Whatever happens, you'd have the rent money saved to find another place.

Who knows, you might eventually find one before you're evicted?

Or, the real landlord might make things legal.

Think.