Q: My question is regarding terminating a lease in Tennessee.
I have a landlord who has openly said to my husband and I that he hid wires in the breaker box to pass the electrical inspection so he didn’t have to fix it “the right way”. He was supposed to fix the driveway a month ago and hasn’t, he was also supposed to fix the steps to the front porch that has boards missing knowing we have a child and has not. It took him 3 weeks to fix a leaky tub and lied about a repairman coming to fix our fridge causing our food to go bad. Is this grounds for terminating our lease? He has cut so many corners in this house I wouldn’t be surprised if the paint they slapped on before we moved in had lead because it was cheaper he’s that kind of guy. Also even though we are terminating the lease (which he copy and pasted and didn’t thoroughly proofread so it reads the lessor is responsible for the remainder of rent) will we be able to get our deposit back? We’ve been here less than 2 months. I read he needs a separate account to store deposits but doubt he did
A: All the Landlord can do is sue you, then try to collect a judgment. If he sues then file your own Civil Warrant for the Security Deposit and whatever remedies that apparently the Landlord/Tenant Act allows for you if you are in one of those Counties. Keeping the Leasehold in a habitable condition is probably a requirement here, for which he breached and constructively evicted you. Ask the Clerk to set it for the same day as the Landlord's Warrant.
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