Not kosher. Your LL is treating it as a vacant unit (I never do heavy remodeling like that when I have a lease in force.) With lease still in force and paying what you are, you could legally walk in today and stake a claim to the place, for crying out loud. You're getting taken for a ride. Before shutting off utilities and stopping rent (which could be detrimental to you) I would start with a Certified letter to LL stating condition of house just as you did above. (Can you get photos?) If locks were changed, that's another strike against LL, since you're still paying rent. State in your letter that since the LL would not relieve you of the lease early, and you are still paying rent and utilities, possession is yours. If they want to continue with remodeling, then considering the unit is not habitable they are violating the lease terms and you expect to be released in writing from your lease and that you will also turn off utilities. Give them 7 business days to respond. What that does is create a paper trail should you need it if attorney/court becomes involved. Actually, I would send two ways, Certified (so signature is required) and w/proof of mailing. Sometimes people refuse mail when they see who it's from so it sits at PO, then after a couple more attempts PO will notify you it's not being accepted. So if you mail w/proof of mailing you've got something else as back up (even tho it doesn't prove they got it, it will help). Since all that activity is going on, odds are good they are not going to stop remodeling for 3 months to ride out the rest of the lease term. Doubt LL can claim it's been abandoned because you're still paying rent/utilities. My concern as a LL would be pipes freezing and bursting if applicable in your area, so I would leave heat set and a slight drip in water. You don't want to be accused of property damage. (Wow, more I mull this over, it's not only shady, it's weird of your LL.) If you have your lease, the best thing you can do is quote any pertinent clauses in it. Google your state's Landlord Tenant laws as well and specifically refer to those in your letter. That might be just the nudge they need to back off without taking it up a notch and getting into legal arena. What you don't want is to make the wrong move so it looks like you broke the lease. Far better for you not to land on that side. If no response, or LL won't cooperate, I would consult an attorney. What they're doing is unethical.

It all varies. It varies on local and state laws, and what the landlord wants to do. In some areas, it's a requirement that the landlord paint between tenants, in other areas it is not. You have to ask. You have to read the lease carefully. For your specific questions: You can ask the owner to regrout. They may not want to, but may do extra cleaning to remove the mold. You will have to decide if that is enough. Usually the apartment is clean enough to move in. If it has been vacant for a while, it might be dusty. Only in very hot rental markets have I moved into a dirty apartment (in Boston--one tenant moves out and the next moves in later the same day--you come prepared to clean). Painting--ask when you view the apartment. If repainting isn't standard or the landlord doesn't think it needs to be done, you can ask them to do it anyway. They may charge for this. Again, you'd have to decide if it's worth the cost. Or the landlord may give you the paint and let you paint yourself, although in an expensive rental, I doubt they'd take that risk. You can also ask about colors--some landlords allow colors if the tenant repaints in white paint before leaving, or pays to have the walls repainted. Track lighting--again, you can ask if this can be removed. However, most track lighting is attached to the ceiling in several places along the track and the landlord may not want to do the work to patch and repaint to make the ceiling look nice again. Many renters do replace lighting fixtures they don't like with ones that they do. However, you need to read the lease carefully. Some leases clearly state that anything you attach to the walls or ceilings becomes the landlord's property, so you can change the lighting, but you have to leave it behind when you go. If your mother does change anything like a light fixture, she should put the original fittings back before she leaves. That's usually a condition of the lease. I had to put black-out shades in my bedroom in my current apartment because the landlord-provided mini-blinds do nothing to prevent the morning sun from awakening me at 4:30 am. I kept the mini-blinds, and will ask my landlord what she wants me to do when I leave--keep the roller shades up or put the mini-blinds back. Carpet cleaning--again, you have to ask. Every landlord has different policies. Usually, the higher the rent and the better the location, the more the landlord cleans and fixes up the apartment between tenants. However, there's a difference between dealing with a management company handling hundreds of apartments and an individual landlord who owns one or two units. The management companies have a system--the old tenant moves out, the cleaners and painters move in. With an individual landlord, there are no clear expectations--you need to ask what they do and don't do.

would she be less scared if she had a roommate? Of course, she got her place, but if it ends up too hard for her, maybe that would be a move to make once her lease is up? Of course she needs to not own very much, since she has so little space. That'll make it easier to be broke, because she wouldn't have room to store anything she might buy, anyway. She should get most of her pots&pans, dishes, incidental furniture, etc., from family & friends. If you aren't able to provide her with some stuff, be sure to mention her new living situation to friends, folks at church, etc. People love to be able to help out by giving away stuff they don't want. Even small stuff, like an extra mop, a bunch of extra dishtowels that don't match my kitchen but are perfectly new, stuff like that. of course, w/ an efficiency, she needs to carefully select the stuff she DOES get, so encourage her to decline stuff that won't work. Big, tall bookcases provide storage and keep the walls from looking blank. If she can't make holes in the wall, she could use the new Command adhesive hooks and poster squares from 3M; Staples carries them, as do Wal-Mart type places. Cloth is a good way to add color if the walls are white. Maybe curtains over the bookcases, to hide the clutter and provide a big expanse of color. Bedsheets are a great way to get huge pieces of brightly colored cloth, and sometimes you can find them pretty cheaply if they're being discontinued, etc. And even if she doesn't sew, she could use iron-on fusible webbing tape to make hems, or even to make casings for curtain rods. She needs a filing cabinet of some sort--that's the most useful thing, actually. A place to keep her lease, her receipts for her rent, her insurance cards, etc. She is now her own "business unit," and she needs a way to manage her records. That was the part that surprised me the most, and found me the least prepared. I knew I needed pots&pans, sheets, towels, etc. But it never occurred to me that I would now have official records, and would need a place to keep them. And being organized on the business side will lessen that "I'm out of control; the world is out of control" feeling that makes ANY move scary for anyone. (maybe it's worse for her?) And help her set up routines for bill paying, and paperwork filing? And for regular cleaning, as well. Even something as simple as helping her put together a list of phone numbers to post beside the phone--the building's manager, the emergency plumber, the fire department, a friendly neighbor, the pizza place, any other person or business that would be the go-to person for whatever area makes her nervous--might make her feel that she can cope. And I wish there were a book about how to care for an apartment. I know my mother once remarked that even though my sis is a messy slob, she and her DH always keep their apartments in good enough underlying shape that she always gets her deposit back. There may be papers all over the floor, and shampoo bottles in every corner of the bathroom, but the carpet is vacuumed regularly, there are no stains, and there's NO mildew or soap scum in the bathroom. The link between "cleaning regularly" and "keeping the physical components of the home from sustaining physical damage" is a strong one, but I didn't realize it until I actually owned the place I lived in, and lived there for a while. i didn't notice it, as a kid. So that's a caution for her--she needs to clean regularly, esp. in the bathroom and kitchen, and to clean up spills PROMPTLY--in order to maximize her change of getting her deposit back.

Bars are against fire code in most places. "But I found out from two neighbors that there have been 3-4 in the past couple of years (one early this year) and one was into my present unit!": Are you sure they are telling you the truth? People exagerate, or get things wrong. I had one tenant telling people that there was a robbery in our building, when actually it occurred two buildings away. Music blasting at 2am is unreasonable, people moving around during normal waking hours is reasonable. There is no guarantee in any home or building that there will never be a crime. Most apartment robberies are by people who know the tenant. Just because there may have been a break in years ago in your unit does not make it unsafe. So you chose the cheapest apartment available, and now are going to screw the owner because you did not realize that in a basement apartment someone would be living above you? You sound like a great person. Why don't you just sublease the apartment out to someone else?