WAY O/T - Need some legal help

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Posted By: Anonymous

Leon,
If you have a problem with this, my apologies in advance (just please leave it up for a day or two so I can get some email responses). I would've emailed you about this personally, but it's a time sensitive issue. Hopefully you'll understand.

All,

I know there's a lot of you who are a) lawyers and b) live and/or work in DC. Hopefully some of you can give me some quick legal advice, or at least some avenues to pursue.

Here's the deal: My wife and I are renting a small house in DC. Our lease continues for another year and half or so. A few months ago, we found out she was pregnant. We need to move because the house is way too small to raise a child in (the 2nd "bedroom" is more of an office which is about 6'X 15'). However, it looks like the landlord is going to play games (he is a lawyer) and may try to stick us with paying off the rest of the lease (or at least pay rent until someone else moves in). Is there anyway out of the lease because of the new baby? If we had to pay off the other year and half of the lease, we're talking several thousand dollars that we don't have to burn. We can't really afford paying off a few extra months either (while also paying for a new place). There was no "escape clause" in the lease where we could back out under those circumstances (or any for that matter). Yes, I should've made sure there was one, but we weren't expecting to get pregnant.

Any help would be appreciated.

thegipper12345@hotmail.com

Thanks in advance...