Fargo Attorney Kellan Benson Discusses Lease Limits at Osgood Apartments

“North Dakota law is very unfriendly to tenants; it’s a lot more friendly to landlords,” Kellan Benson told Valley News Live.

The Fargo attorney’s assessment comes as residents at the Osgood Townsite Apartments face a mounting crisis of safety and financial entrapment. Following a recent incident where a woman was found chained inside a unit, tenants at the south Fargo complex managed by Property Resources Group (PRG) are demanding the right to end their leases early due to rising crime concerns.

For many living in the complex, the choice is between staying in an environment they no longer feel is safe or paying a massive penalty to leave. One long-time renter told Valley News Live that management offered a choice between paying $7,854 to break the lease or finding a replacement tenant.

“We’re going on our fourth year and it’s been, by far, the last two years have been the worst of our lives,” the renter said.

While landlords are legally required to maintain rental units that are safe and habitable, Benson explained that a general sense of fear does not grant a tenant an automatic right to walk away from a legal contract. In the eyes of state law, the lease is a binding financial obligation that persists even when the neighborhood atmosphere shifts.

The primary avenue for an early exit is often buried in the fine print of the original agreement. Benson said that some contracts include an “early termination clause,” but these are rarely designed to cover the broad anxieties of a community experiencing a crime spike.

“Sometimes the lease agreement, the contract, includes a clause — it’s called an early termination clause. That allows the tenant to get out of the lease under certain circumstances. In early termination clauses that allow a tenant to leave the property because they fear crime, because they fear for their safety, [it] is pretty rare. It’s very rare that I’ve ever seen something like that,” Benson said.

Most existing clauses are tied to specific, extreme legal triggers, such as domestic violence, rather than general neighborhood instability or a tenant’s subjective feeling of insecurity.

Because the law leans toward the landlord, Benson suggests that tenants who feel trapped should shift their strategy from simply moving out to building a rigorous paper trail. Instead of assuming a legal right to leave, renters should prepare for a negotiation based on evidence.

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Benson recommends that residents collect and maintain the following items:

Copies of all official police reports regarding incidents at the complex.
A log of all emails and text messages sent to property management.
Records of maintenance requests, specifically those regarding locks or security features.
Written notices from the complex regarding crimes or safety issues.

Having a clear, documented history of safety failures may allow a tenant to negotiate a lower buyout fee. Benson said that landlords might be more flexible if a tenant approaches them with specific concerns and a verifiable record of the issues.

The attorney’s ultimate advice to those feeling unsafe is to avoid making unilateral decisions based on secondhand advice or guesswork. He urged renters to bring their specific lease agreements and collected documentation to an attorney or a legal aid provider to determine if a viable legal case exists before they stop paying rent.