Los Angeles: Breaking Lease Due To Roaches

Hi all,

My husband and I live in a huge apartment complex, with each tower having over 130 units. We have been dealing with a German roach issue on and off for 2 years. We have repeatedly contacted maintenance who has sent out pest control to spray our unit, but the roach issue persists. We feel pretty confident they are coming from other units since there are so many people.

We have spent hundreds of dollars of our own money to purchase materials to try to fix the problem on our own since pest control hasn’t worked: plastic bins, caulk, liquid and gel bait, traps, etc. We will go a week without seeing activity only to see roaches at random times of day throughout the apartment, including in the bedroom. We have lost hours of sleep over anxiety and depression related to this issue.

We presented our notice to vacate to break our lease due to uninhabitable conditions. We have video and photo documentation of the roaches, have contacted the health department, and noted tenant rights in our notice. We sent an email and paper copy of the complaint via certified mail asking them to waive our last month’s rent fee due to their inability to provide habitable living conditions.

We haven’t yet gotten a response and are set to move out in 2 weeks. We don’t want to get stuck paying last month’s rent. I understand we are breaking the lease, but are so completely miserable and desperate and are tired of their futile attempts.

What legal grounds do we have as tenants in Los Angeles?