~$1600 for a two-bedroom in OC is fairly decent. You can find some stuff cheaper in craigslist if you search around, but not a lot, so I don't think where the management office has you priced at is way off base...still, it's worth trying to negotiate. Personally, I'd try the following. Try to negotiate with the office regarding your lease -- since you have a few months before you'll actually be doing that, I'd make sure that you are very clear about the issues with noise, etc. that you are having with the neighbors overhead (don't make stuff up, but if you have any more incidents, report them). Then when it comes time to renegotiate, your bringing up the noise problems won't suddenly come out of nowhere. Give them a good reason to want to keep you around; talking about the noise and how frustrating it is for you...but you're willing to stay and put up with it if they'll lower your rent...that's a good way to go, IMHO. If they won't lower your rent, personally, I'd look for a new place to live -- the place you're living in has two points against it: noisy overhead neighbors, and it may be too expensive for you in the long run. Why stay there, then? While there aren't a ton of cheaper places to live, there are some, depending on what neighborhood you're looking in -- and a lot of them are offering the first month or two free. You have five months warning to start setting aside money for a security deposit, etc. I'd start doing that, just as a safety plan.

I'm pretty sure she knows that it's way too loud. She doesn't actually believe the maintenance guy is racist, if she does then she needs her head examined. I think she's stalling because she doesn't want to kick out paying tenants. I've actually tried to arrange something with the manager, because my neighbors usually start up around 6:30pm, half-an-hour after the office closes and all-day on Sundays when the office isn't open at all. The problem is, the office is usually closed by the time I get home from work. Tuesdays are the only days I'm home before 6pm and I think they've caught onto my pattern because she's always busy now when I show up and she's off on Saturdays. I've left messages with her assistants but she's totally dodging me. I sent an email to the regional manager last night, I don't have their phone number and can't find it for the life of me. It'll probably be a week or so before I hear anything back. As for my neighbors, they're friends with the people who live next door to them. The guy who lives above them is deaf (I'm not joking he's actually deaf). The woman who lives directly across from them works evenings and doesn't get home until midnight, but she actually told me that she can sometimes hear their television in her living room during the day, but she doesn't want to get involved. I think I can work on her and she might be willing to talk to the manager, if I can ever get a hold of her, but I still don't think my manager will do anything. If the regional manager won't get involved, can I break my lease without shelling out the subsequent fine?

moonshadow- I don't get it. You are more sympathetic of the landlord (who is able to sleep peacefully at night) than of the person who is paying good money for the "quiet enjoyment" of their premises. Have you ever lived beneath someone as noisy as corrinemb's neighbors? First of all, if you're going to quote me, please use all the words I said. Quoting selectively chosen text tends to alter the meaning of the original text. (Although I mentioned vacation, please note I also said the landlady could have been away at a funeral, or tending to a sick parent). Also, you make some really strong assumptions in your posts, dreamgarden. You called the landlord a liar and said she knew about the noise from above all along and that's why the unit is empty. Umm, it's not empty, corrinemb is living in it. And you know the landlord is a liar how? Because you've lived in one of her rentals and dealt with this individual before? "Liar" is a very harsh word. Personally, I despise that word. You've also assumed (and presented as a fact) that the landlord is able to sleep peacefully at night. (Again, you know this how?) So why am I sticking up for her? Because I am a landlord. And if you read that post carefully, you will see there is a bit more going on there. I know exactly how it feels to be 500 miles away (not on vacation) and have all h*ll break loose over a non-emergency. Sure, I can and would make a phone call to disruptive tenants. But phone calls tend to not be taken too seriously and do not create the critically necessary paper trail. As an effective landlord, what I need to do is go over there and check out the situation for myself. I need to make the determination whether the extra person has indeed moved in or was just visiting for the holidays. Then put the transgressions in writing and send it via certified mail to the tenant. Let's say the landlord wasn't away, that she was in town. Let's say landlord drops everything for this situation and made it her utmost priority in life that week. Here's how it would have transpired (and I'm taking these dates directly from corrine's post.) Corrine calls landlady on Sun 12/3. Landlady immediately calls upstairs tenants, gives 24 hours notice that she's doing an inspection. Now it's Monday afternoon, 12/4. Landlord inspects, assess, talks with tenants. Landlord goes home, sits down, and types a letter that same day. By now P.O. is closed, so landlady goes to P.O. first thing Tues morning 12/5, letter goes out that day. Since landlord and tenants are geographically close, letter will probably arrive at tenant's on Wednesday 12/6 or Thursday 12/7. Friday 12/8 rolls around, no results, and corrinemb is going to call again, because she came here and posted very early on the morning of Saturday morning, 12/9. Do you see the illustration here? IF the landlady were in town and IF she acted immediately at every phase of this step, that STILL would only allow 2 1/2 weekdays or so (Wed-Fri or Thurs-Fri) to resolve all the issues at hand. Landlords are people with problems and crises and LIVES, just like everyone else, yet some tenants act as if they can demand the landlord "jump" and landlord will respond with "how high". I have good relationships with all my tenants. If they are not unreasonable demanding, or screaming about their rights, I will do whatever it takes, putting my own appointments and needs aside, to keep them comfortable and happy. If they turn out to be the screaming/demanding type, I pray they bail on their lease before I can legally get them out. They aren't worth it. Just like a homeowner has to address structural issues immediately, I have to do the same for dwellings with tenants in them. If I get a call at 4 a.m. that the furnace is malfunctioning, and it's 20 degrees out, I can't go back to bed and curl up under my warm covers. One time the town broke a water main during work and my elderly tenants had no water. Not my obligation, but I went to the store and purchased several gallons of distilled and drinking water because one of them had a colostomy bag that required purified water several times a day. I didn't have to do that. It was caused by the municipality and was in the street, not any plumbing malfunction inside the dwelling itself. They had money, a car, and the store was 3 blocks away. I did it to be NICE. I have shoveled knee deep snow for those same elderly tenants when they went to Fla for Christmas so the house didn't look vacant and it was not a temptation to break in. Why did I do it? Because the good for nothing grown kids of my tenants were "too busy" and broke the promise they made to their parents to keep an eye on things and maintain snow. I have had to drop everything and rush to a house that had raw sewage running out a pipe and down the driveway. Cost me a bundle, it was a weekend night call. You know what caused it? A washcloth flushed down the toilet. When I conveyed this to the tenant, her response: 'you know how it is when you're dumping your dirty cleaning bucket down the toilet, you don't pay attention to what's in it'. Didn't even get Christmas off this year. Tenant calls me as she's flying to CA on holiday, sewage is backing up and pipe is leaking. That problem didn't happen overnight, she just didn't tell me until she was on a plane.So guess how the plumber and I spent Christmas Eve, because the house was filled with lethal sewer gas and I couldn't let it go. I've had to get out of bed in the middle of the night, cancel my own personal appointments, rearrange my schedule, you name it, to get emergencies taken care of. And I never complain to my tenants because it's my responsibility. However: if someone's going to bug me twice in a week over something that can and should be addressed when I get back in town, it's not going to sit well with me. Get the picture?

I found the following from Maryland Landlord Tenant Laws: Q -"Can I break the lease if management doesnÂt properly maintain the property?" A -The answer is that it depends. If the property is so poorly maintained that it is no longer tenable to live there, a tenant may be able to go into District Court under the Rent Escrow Law (and in Baltimore City, under the Warranty of Habitability) and have a judge void the lease. In addition, if a tenant vacates a property because of the severity of the conditions, the tenant may be able to sue the landlord for constructive eviction and have the court void the lease and give the tenant money damages. The remedies of Rent Escrow, Warranty of Habitability and Constructive Eviction are somewhat complicated and it is advisable to seek assistance before proceeding. BNI, the Legal Aid Bureau (for income eligible clients), Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (for income eligible clients), or a private attorney may be able to provide you with more detailed information tailored to your particular situation. [Normally, the remedy for poor maintenance is to file a complaint with the local housing inspectors and/or to send a letter by certified mail to the landlord noting the items you want repaired. Then, if the landlord has not complied with the violation notice or repaired the property within a reasonable time, and if the repairs needed are substantial, it is possible to petition the court, in a rent escrow process, (and/or warranty of habitability process in Baltimore City) to have the rent money placed into an escrow account until all repairs are completed.] Actually, the laws are very easy to navigate and get answer to your questions (compared to many states). You can view the full content here: Landlord-Tenant Law Another page from that site: Tips from the Experts on Landlord Tenant Law Contact #'s are included as well. It's a good guide to help you out with whom to contact (including attorneys/legal aid, etc.)