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I'm actually in the same situation you are, although mine sounds like it's not quite as bad. One MAJOR thing I would advise you to do is not to hesitate. The longer you wait in your lease the harder it will be to later say that the conditions were the reason you left. ie, if you put up with bums begging you outside your building and sharing pizza with cockroaches it's hard to suddenly claim 6 months in that you couldn't deal with it anymore.
Knowing your city/state would help a lot with this, as the rules are going to vary based on where you are. Usual provisions for an early lease termination are things like you need to repay all concessions that were made during your stay as well as 2 months rent for them to find a new tenant. The particular provisions on my lease are a 3 month buy out if i vacate before november, and 5 month pay if i leave from Nov - Feb (hard times to find new tenants)
Depending on your relationship with the landlord, you may or may not want to jump to a "unbearable conditions" path of action. If you guys get along well, I would try having a talk with him and offer to help him locate a new tenant and offset the cost of your vacancy. You can often post a listing for your apartment with local brokers for a small fee (if they find a tenant for you). If you have 10 months left, I would suggest something like this.
If the situation does get ugly, and I mean REALLY ugly, here's my advice for you. Now before you do any of this, remember that this is going to get UGLY, but it will work and you should be able to get a release from your lease.
Document everything. Email all conversations you have with your landlord, and make sure that everything that is communicated is recorded. Report each and every instance that you believe makes your conditions unfavorable. If you see a roach, email your landlord and request immediate remedy. Everytime you see something like this, make sure you record it and you make it known. If you have issues with the vagrants nearby, record your interactions and request that your landlord do something about it.
Eventually, your landlord will either request that you move out early, or you will have a strong enough case to move out and avoid the penalties. As I said earlier though, this is a bad situation, and it will really make coming home close to hell for you.
If you are not somewhat versed in the legal verbiage of a lease, get a friend to look over it with you. If no provisions are made for an early vacancy, then you are in a grey zone. It may be worth it to consult a professional in that case, as if no terms are stated then typically the commercially acceptable conditions will apply.
sigma: Thanks for all the advice! Yea, I'm going to start this up next monday and hope it gets the ball rolling. I live in Los Angeles. My lease doesnt have a buy out period. It simply says I pay until the end of my lease or until they've found a new tennant. I signed it, so I suppose they could force me to stick to it if they really want to. I agree that I don't want things to get ugly, unless it's my only option.
I'd like to e-mail my manager, but I don't have his address. Everything is done through maintenance requets in his drop box, or face to face during office hours. I suppose I could start scanning in maintenance complaints though.
I'm just not sure how this conversation is going to go.. I figure that after I say that I want to move out in the next 4 months rather than the next 10, he'll say no. That I signed a lease and have to stick to it. From there I can offer him my security deposit or part of it in exchange for breaking the lease early. Offering to help find a new tennant seems a little pointless because this building advertises farily well already. If he says no to the security deposit as well, do I just jump into the argument that the conditions are unsanitary? He'll probably offer to have an exterminator come. Anything from there just sounds like threats if I tell him that the roaches will just come back since they live in the walls and I'll have to get the exterminator to come once or twice a month. I figure if I say anything that sounds like a threat that I'll never have a chance to get out of this without finding a new tennant, something I have doubts will happen.