Long story short is that my daughter's apartment complex had a fire a few weeks back. No fire damage to her specific unit but the smoke smell travel through the building and actually forced her to vacate for a few days because it was impossible to breathe in the apartment without some respiratory issues, and she's always been sensitive to smoke. The smoke smell is still there a little bit, but it is livable at least now. However, most of her clothes all still smell of smoke.

Then a few days ago, her car was heavily vandalized in the apartment complex parking lot in an attempted theft. No cameras, unfortunately, in the parking lot. She's obviously having a hard time and is frustrated at the whole situation. As her parents, we agree with her and would like her to be able to get out of this place as soon as possible into someplace safer and away from any smoke issues.

Her lease doesn't run out until the end of December, however. Any recourse here? Or are we likely to be on the hook for the remainder of the lease if we decide to move her to a better location?

In Texas, FWIW

This in cedar park?

No, Richardson/Plano area...

Wasn't a bad fire or anything. But enough for for department to heavy to put it out and knock on everyone's doors at 3am in the morning and tell everyone to vacate while they extinguished it.

This seems to be more a legal question than an HI one. May get better answers on the B&I board.

Just a casual review of the Texas Residential Lease Agreement, especially section 13, it doesn't seem like there's an out in this case, and it just reverts to whatever termination clause is listed in the Term section.

That being said, I'm sure a lawyer could find an out, but it may just be cheaper to terminate the lease.

*I'm not a lawyer.

Does she have renters insurance?

Not a help on breaking the lease but had a buddy who had a neighboring unit have a fire. His renters insurance paid for cleaning for all his clothes. Couldn't get the smoke smell out so gave him money to replace them all.

General board would have already asked for rule 1. But I digress.

The smoke smell in cars is exactly the reason you buy renters insurance. A car getting vandalized doesn't really make the place unsafe or a hazard. At the very least she needs to keep reporting in writing that there are issues with a smoke smell. DFW is a tough rental market, so it may be tough to get what you want without breaking the lease and either continuing to pay or waiting to get sued for unpaid rent. The bigger risk is that she may get reported to Rentroll or whoever does that these days.

Quote:

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DAMAGE TO PREMISES. In the event the Premises are destroyed or rendered wholly uninhabitable by fire, storm, earthquake, or other casualty not caused by the negligence of Tenant, this Texas Lease Agreement shall terminate from such time except for the purpose of enforcing rights that may have then accrued hereunder. The rental provided for herein shall then be accounted for by and between Landlord and Tenant up to the time of such injury or destruction of the Premises, Tenant paying rentals up to such date and Landlord refunding rentals collected beyond such date. Should a portion of the Premises thereby be rendered uninhabitable, the Landlord shall have the option of either repairing such injured or damaged portion or terminating this Lease. In the event that Landlord exercises its right to repair such uninhabitable portion, the rental shall abate in the proportion that the injured parts bears to the whole Premises, and such part so injured shall be restored by Landlord as speedily as practicable, after which the full rent shall recommence and the Texas Lease Agreement continue according to its terms.

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