A friend of mine is moving out of state and wants to break her contract. She wants to move out in the middle of the month and is asking the landlord to have her rent prorated. Landlord does not want to do it.

The story: their contract expired on 15/7/04 but my friend stayed at the appartment and kept paying rent as normal. By the contract this is the same as a renewed lease and it says that the tenancy will continue for "30 day to 30 day period". But if the lease expired on the 15, the "new one" should start on the sixteenth and, thus, it should be 16 to 16 or something like that, right? Now landlord claims that she has to stay until the end of the month and that she has to pay the whole monthly rent. My friend gave them an oral notice more than 30 days in advance and then a written notice 30 days in advance.

Who is right now? The landlord claiming it is calendar month or my friend who thinks that the last day is the 16?

Pay attention to that "30 day to 30 day" period thing.

Also, she gave them a deposit and is afraid that if she manages to leave earlier at "half rent" they will hold the deposit saying there are damages. The appartment looks in the condition she rented it and there are no major damages but absolutely normal very minor wear and tear. Still, they can claim it is damaged and keep the whole deposit which would not be fair. Who could arbitrate in the inspection of the property?