OK ... so here's the deal.
5 months ago my girlfriend (now ex-girlfriend) and I signed a 1 year lease to rent a house in Arizona with another couple that she has known for many years. The main purpose of this was to save money. All four of our names are on the lease. We split everything equally four ways and in theory it would make things a lot cheaper. Obviously our friends and family were worried just because what if one of us broke up, couldn't pay, lost a job, etc ... we didn't care at the time though because we were dumb. Also, young love, we thought we'd be together forever ...
WRONG.
4 months into the lease I broke up with my girlfriend. Without going into too many breakup details, I was the victim of domestic violence shortly after the breakup (about 2 weeks ago) in which my ex-girlfriend assaulted me. She was taken to jail that night and released sometime the next day on certain terms. One probably being that she couldn't return to the residence.
Now based on my understanding she doesn't technically have any legal binding to pay her part regardless of her name being on the lease. It was a personal agreement between all of us to split everything equally, so the landlord doesn't care who pays what, as long as he/she gets the full amount each month, right? So it comes down to us 3 to come up with the full rent payment now.
The other two are refusing to pick up her part, and I don't really have the money to cover her part alone. No luck on finding an additional roommate yet, but that's not within the scope of this question.
I don't really want to be here anymore, I only know these other two people because of my ex-girlfriend, and I don't really feel comfortable. Also, get this, they both lost their jobs a month ago ... on the same day. Of course they are actively searching, but still, not willing to pay her part.
So I read online that I may be able to terminate a lease being the victim of domestic assault -
Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § §â
I have no idea how to look up this law, and even if did I probably would not know how to interpret it. So my question is:
Do I have the right to terminate this lease without penalty because I was a victim of domestic assault, and the assaulter is also on the lease?