How can my friend get out of his rental lease?

[Meowster]

Hi all,

My friend was recently burgled and ALL of his stuff taken from his apartment while he was at work. He has been told that there is a high chance the burglar will return after he's claimed on his insurance and take his NEW stuff too, as it is a common tactic of this type of crime around the area. He feels helpless and vulnerable and unable to replace anything in the house as he's sure it will be taken.

Unfortunately he's stuck in his contract with the letting agent until May 2009.

I'm wondering if he'd be able to get out of this contract. The apartment was not broken into but accessed with a key, which somehow the burglar got hold of or a copy of. This guy lives alone and is 100% certain nobody could have got a copy of the key from him - it must have been from the letting agents or the apartment owner.

The gate that leads into the communal area shared by the apartments (and not otherwise accessible to anyone else) was supposed to be locked at all times, however it had been broken for many weeks leading up to the burglary.

Additionally there was no CCTV or other measures of security, and the police have advised him to move out ASAP as otherwise he will almost certainly suffer a second burglary.

I'm going to get this guy to leave work now and go home to read his contract to check if there's anything in there that can help him. However, in the meantime can any of you offer help or advice? Otherwise he's going to have to spend the next seven months sitting in an empty house in fear

[Pumaman]

The fact that his flat was broken into using a key means that surely the letting agent has to take some responsibility for it. Have they at least changed all the locks for him?

It's not surprising though, when I think of the number of people that have had access to the key to my flat over the months, everyone from the gas safety inspector to the plumber has been leant the key by the agent, and could easily have made a copy of it if they'd wanted to.

Does your friend live in a ground floor flat or one higher up? If it's higher up then there shouldn't be much danger of anyone climbing in through the windows, so just making sure that all the door locks are replaced with modern, high-security ones should at least prevent the same burglar from getting in again.

[Becky]

I have no idea exactly what contract he's got, but a lot of students round here including myself are able to swap/resign contracts with new people if they decide to leave, but I don't think we can outright leave (well, stop paying) unless someone else picks the contract up.

Also there should definitely be a clause somewhere about prior dissolution of the contract, I'd double check and get him to talk to the letting agent.

[Evil]

You can notify their renter's union, or even mail the city. If the police are involved (which I'm sure they are), they could probably give your friend some insight as to what to do.

[Makeout Patrol]

He should check the lease and see if he can figure anything out himself, but if not, this is why God gave us lawyers.

[Andail]

Wasn't there a thread a while ago about building traps for expected thieves?