Get me out of my lease to prevent eviction

Hello. My name is Kristina and I moved to Lincoln, NE 3 years ago to attend law school. If I don’t get out of my lease and into a cheaper place immediately I will be evicted. An eviction means I won’t be able to take the bar exam and I’ll lose the attorney position I’ve secured.

When I moved here, I was with an abusive partner who insisted on an apartment that was out of our price range. He promised to get a job and pay rent, but after 6 months he still hadn’t even looked for a job.

As a result, I was responsible for all our bills including his car payment, insurance, and cell phone bill for he and his brother.

He also took out a 5,000 dollar personal loan in my name and when I had the money to pay it off in full, refused to let me.

In October of 2019, I adopted 2 kittens (pictured above). In December of that year, when the kittens were 5 months old, one of them jumped on the counter and knocked over her treat jar. My partner proceeded to beat her in the face repeatedly. That night I broke up with him.

For the next two months, he refused to move out. He would keep me awake at night berating me and trying to guilt me for breaking up with him, would climb into bed with me despite my boundaries, and even assaulted me on occasion.

Finally he demanded I pay him 6 thousand dollars and have sex with him or he would not leave. To get him out of my life, I gave him 4 thousand dollars and refused his other demands.

All of this was going on during my first year of law school when I couldn’t work. After he left, Covid-19 ripped a hole in the economy and I fell right through it. Finding work for the summer was impossible and I quickly burned through my savings.

Obviously, I could no longer afford this impossibly expensive apartment. I found a roommate to supplement the income for a while, but when it was time for her to move on to another place I once again found myself in trouble. My summer work in law school has been for nonprofit organizations—so my only income was grant money. While this was enough to pay my bills it was never enough to put away for later.

Fast forward to today.

I’ve graduated law school and have been offered a position (before graduation!) as an attorney at a nonprofit organization helping undocumented minor victims of abuse. I am set to take the bar exam in July and the position begins right afterwards.

In order to take the bar exam, law school graduates have to pass what’s called a Character and Fitness examination which determines if you are ethically fit to be an attorney. If I have any civil or criminal proceedings filed against me—anything so much as a speeding ticket—before my admission to the bar, I could be deemed unfit. My future would be ruined.

Which brings me to why I’m asking for your help.

I have two jobs at present and I am still completely unable to pay my rent. I’ve applied for rental assistance, but they have told me twice now that it could be 3-4 months before I get relief. In that time, I WILL have eviction proceedings filed against me. And I am terrified that it could mean all the hard work and hardship I’ve endured the last three years would be for nothing.

Ive borrowed money from friends and family the last two months to pay my rent and that is entirely unsustainable. My idea is that if I pay the break lease fee (2000 dollars plus 2 months rent) and move into a 40% cheaper place nearby, I can avoid this situation ever happening again.

This move would also mean that instead of paying money to a large corporation that ignores maintenance requests and ignores break ins in the parking lot, I could pay a real human being whose mother lives in the same building I’d be renting in.

I need this to happen fast first to secure the place I’ve found and second to avoid eviction proceedings ahead of the bar exam. I’m supposed to be studying for the exam while working 60 hours a week and worrying day and night about how I’m going to pay rent.

I am never a person who asks for help. I would rather suffer than burden anyone. This is a last-ditch, desperate effort to get out of this apartment and on my feet. I became a lawyer to help people with no money and no options. I just need a little help to do it.

Essentially, this money will go to two things: the break lease fee and a little extra for moving expenses.

1000x2=2 months rent

1940=amended termination fee

560=moving expenses and security deposit