I think you need to contact the state agency that governs housing. Call the mayor's office, or a city councilperson's office, and ask them to tell you the name of the agency and the phone number.

He is letting you out of your lease. Take your pick, say goodbye to your $520. deposit or make him mad and he can hold you (and your Mom) responsible for the rest of the lease.

Follow up,
We sent my keys back and he finally a week later sent us a form to sign saying we were out of the lease. In the form it says he keeps all moneys ( like my deposit) I think i should fight for my deposit back. Because he already signed a lease with someone else ( who has moved in) even before we recieved a lease release form. If i'm not mistaken you can't legal have 2 people in a lease with you at the same time for the same apartment. Not to mention the deposit it supposed to be only held for damages only. So if i took him to court couldn't i win b/c he illegally has 2 people in a lease?
Thanks
Erin

My advice stands--call whatever state agency governs landlord laws. There should be a city or county office.

In many states, it is true that a landlord can't rent to someone else for the same period he is charging you for. He often can, however, keep money to cover the cost of the ad or perhaps other transitional expenses. How much money that is may be set by the state, so he may not have to prove to you how much *his* particular ad cost.

You need to know your local or state laws.

There's a Rental Housing Clinic at the Michigan State University-Detroit School of Law.
http://www.msulawclinics.org/rhc
They focus mainly on the East Lansing area, but their website might have info you can use, or they might be able to give you contact info for state agencies.

Call the Building Division of the Michigan Department of Consumer and Industry Services; 517-241-9347; they may deal only w/ mobile homes, but they can send you to the right people.

And try this one, too

Here is a link that might be useful: start w/ this PDF of tenant landlord law in Michigan

Right now in Florida, there is a bill in the State legislature to change the law and make it legal for landlords to collect from BOTH parties should the lease be broken. Now that seems greedy to me. Don't 'cha think they'd have better things to do in the Statehouse?

and if that law passes, what tenant would break a lease? I'd pay the rent and consider that my space--I'd keep my keys, and turn them in when the lease was up. And have lots of "friends" over in my last few months of the lease--maybe ask those friends to "loan" me money.

If the landlord let someone else into that apartment, I'd be saying he was in violation of my lease, which I am paying for, and he'd have to reimburse me.