Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
Second Glance History
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
Story

5 Ways to Break Your Lease

On July 15, 2020 by Elyse

Have you just been offered a new job—in a city across the country? Maybe you moved in with your significant other after a few idyllic dates, and three months later, the honeymoon is over—but your lease isn’t. Or perhaps you’re haunted by your new wife’s deceased husband—when he tells you to vacate the premises, you better scram.

Don’t stay in a house that doesn’t feel like home. If your landlord won’t budge despite these compelling reasons, the inspirational stories below will show you how to transform yourself into the tenant from hell. With Second Glance History’s money-back guarantee, your landlord will be more than happy to see you on your merry way. You’ll be house hunting before you can say “give me back my security deposit!”

From the Evening Express, May 26, 1893.

1. Invent anything at all.

Extricate yourself from your living arrangements while at the same time bringing your crackpot ideas—I mean, groundbreaking innovations—to life.

An amusing case came before Judge Bray at Wandsworth County-court yesterday, when a Mrs. Young, who lets apartments, made a claim against a Frenchman, named Maggora. Mrs. Young stated that three or four months after Maggora took her rooms he said he wanted to make a model of an invention that a talking-machine company was going to take over.

The plaintiff added that he took 26 keys out of her piano without permission, used the carpets, pieces of parchment, and anything he could get hold of, and stripped the walls and put plans on them. After he had built the model in the room it required three people to remove it.

The judge adjourned the case in order that the defendant might either put the piano right or provide a new one.

– The Evening Express, December 8, 1908

Moral of the story: Never let personal property stop you from moving into a new apartment—or unleashing your inner genius.

2. Snore like a prize ox.

What’s worse than snoring like a bear? I bet your landlord won’t want to find out.

A young man entered the box [at the West London Police-court] and stated that he occupied a flat for three years. A lodger in the room over him snored when in bed like a prize ox. He could not sleep in consequence of the noise. He wished to know if he should proceed against the tenant or the landlord.

Mr Curtis Bennett: What for? To prevent a man from snoring? I have had a great many applications, but never against a tenant for snoring too loud.

The Applicant said he did not want to leave the place, nor could he sleep in the kitchen for three years to prevent being disturbed.

Mr Curtis Bennett: It is one of the benefits of flat life. There have been one or two examples lately, and this is another.

The Applicant also stated that the snoring lodger held his flat for three years.

Mr Curtis Bennett: Go to your landlord and see if he will release you.

The Applicant: Can you give me a summons against him?

Mr Curtis Bennett: Against the man for snoring?

The Applicant: No, against the landlord.

Mr Curtis Bennett said he could not assist the applicant.

– The South Wales Echo, March 18, 1895

This is disheartening news for those of us hoping for a legal remedy to our sleepless nights. However, it at least sets a good precedent for finding quieter lodgings.

Snore like one of these guys. 1887 illustration from the British Library.

3. Duke it out in your own Star Wars.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s. . . a property dispute!

. . . a meteorite which fell on an American farm. . . was claimed by the ground landlord, because the lease reserved to him all minerals and metals on the land. It was also claimed by the tenant on the score that it was not in the ground when the lease was made. The landlord then required it as “flying game.”

The tenant, however, pleaded that it had neither wings nor feathers, and asserted his right to it as ground game. While the dispute was raging, the revenue officers seized it as an article which had been introduced into the country without payment of duty.

– The South Wales Daily News, December 8, 1897

It’s probably for the best that neither of them had access to lightsabers and/or missile defense systems. Still, had this tenant wished on that shooting star for a release from his lease, it surely would’ve come true.

4. Challenge stereotypes.

This landlord no doubt thought he was renting to a sweet, little old lady who would fill his house with the smell of warm cookies wafting from the oven. Never judge a book by its cover.

. . . A few weeks ago, he explained, he let a room to an old lady, who shortly afterwards brought in a man and two children to reside with her. Notices to quit were no good, for she tore them up and threatened to treat him the same way.

Nor did the local health inspector, who called and ordered them to leave, fare much better, for the recalcitrant lodger simply ignored him.

The landlord again remonstrated, but the only answer he got was, “If you interfere we will drop something on you and lay you low. We are going out just when we like.”

The applicant was advised to serve a notice to quit, keeping a copy, and if the lodger failed to depart to apply to the court for an ejectment order.

– The Evening Express, June 5, 1908

She may be a bad tenant, but she’d be a badass grandma.

Here’s hoping none of these rental disputes were quite this heated. 1889 illustration from the British Library.

5. Cook late at night.

I tend to crave nachos slathered in artificial cheese after 10 p.m., but to each their own:

A Newport dock labourer named James Murphy, who had been staying at a lodging-house at 55, Dock-street, was before the magistrates on Monday charged with assaulting his landlord, Morton William Miller. Mr. Lyndon Moore appeared for the defence.

Miller said he declined to allow defendant to cook chops so late as 10.40 on Sunday night, November 4. Defendant took up the frying-pan, and hit him on the forehead, causing a wound 2½ inches long, extending down to the bone.

Mr. Lyndon Moore, in cross-examination, put some pointed questions about the part which Mrs. Sullivan, manageress of the house, played, and the uses made of a poker, which was nearly red hot.

“Wasn’t your cut produced with the poker in the struggle?” asked Mr. Moore of the complainant.

“This is most amusing, Mr. Moore,” responded Miller. “In fact, he hit Mrs. Sullivan with the frying-pan. It is three charges there ought to be against him, not one.”

Defendant said when the bother began someone “outed” the lamp, and he was attacked with the hot poker.

The Bench in the result fined him 40s., or a month’s imprisonment.

– The Evening Express, November 13, 1906

Even by early 20th-century standards, I’m still struggling to understand which part of this story qualifies as “amusing.” However, one thing that’s certainly not? This living situation. While Second Glance History does not advocate assaulting your landlord with a frying pan and/or hot poker to break your lease, cooking at inconvenient hours—and not sharing those meals—should do the trick.

1854 illustration from the British Library.

Am I trying too hard?

Recent Posts You
May Have Missed

  • Romeo Gone Wrong
  • The Marathon Musician
  • Brussels Bonanza
  • Eggnog Eggcess
  • The Perfect Foot
  • Bearbnb

Did you click through Facebook or Twitter? We got lucky—don’t let social media algorithms keep you from seeing a post! Save yourself a click, and subscribe to have stories delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re published.


Disclaimer: The modern era is far from the first to grapple with rampant “fake news.” As I am neither a historian nor journalist, I make no claims about the accuracy or lack thereof of the above sources. I assert only that they make for a good story.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Tags: 19th Century, 20th Century, Apartment, Landlord, Lease, Meteorite, Newspaper, Tenant, United Kingdom, United States

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

  • Clip of the Week: March 22, 2023
  • Clip of the Week: March 8, 2023
  • Clip of the Week: February 22, 2023
  • Romeo Gone Wrong
  • Clip of the Week: January 25, 2023

Follow Second Glance History

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Subscribe to the Blog via Email

Never miss a new post ever again! Enter your email address to subscribe to Second Glance History, and stories will be delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re published.

Search

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018

Categories

  • Clip
  • News
  • Story

About This Blog

Welcome to Second Glance History! This blog seeks to uncover the people and the stories forgotten by history and give them another read through a modern lens. Join me every week as we examine the differences that divide and the common threads that connect the then to the now.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Never miss a new post ever again! Enter your email address to subscribe to Second Glance History, and stories will be delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re published.

© Elyse and Second Glance History, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress