Greensboro, NC-- Residents of a Greensboro apartment complex want to leave, but don't know how they can get out of their leases.
After News 2 spoke with tenants of the Cascades Grandview Apartments on Thursday, a Greensboro attorney said they still have to go through the court system.
Attorney Tomakio Gause looked over the lease with News 2's Liz Crawford. Gause said parts of the lease are very unclear.
News 2 was only able to get the first page of a tenant's lease. The tenant who gave it to us said management only gave her a copy of the first page, out of eight pages. Other tenants told us they were never given a copy at all.
"You're always entitled to a copy of an agreement that you signed just so you'll be aware of your responsibilities as well as the other party's responsibilities under the terms of the agreement," said Gause.
According to page one of the lease, rent and utilities are included in the monthly fee. That's what the tenants told us. However utilities include sewer, water, and trash, not electricity.
Gause said, "There's a clause number eight that indicates the electric service should have been transferred into the individual tenant's name and taken out of the name of the landlord."
At the end of the day, Gause explained that if the electricity is cut off and residents cannot live there, it becomes uninhabitable, which likely falls on the responsibility of the landlord.
Gause also explained that Cascades tenants might be able to sue and get credited for the time they were not able to live in the apartment.
According to Gause, when it comes to breaking leases, tenants still need to go to court to determine if they can breach or terminate their lease without penalty.
WFMY News 2