Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the correct sub-forum to post in, apologies if it is. I'm facing a problem and I was hoping someone who's an expert in this matter could provide some help.
.
.
A year and a half ago, 4 of my friends, including me rented a unit together in Damansara, the rent was RM2200 meaning each of us has to pay RM550 each. One person handles the rent while the others bank in our share of rent to this 1 person, let's call him Person A.

About 5 months in, Person A left back to go to his hometown and didn't come back home. 3 months later (8 months after renting), we found out that Person A has stole our rent money and didn't pay the landlord at all. This sum was around RM8,000+. We only got to know about this matter AFTER the landlord suddenly showed up asking us to evict the apartment. The landlord said that she tried calling Person A many times but he just wouldn't answer phone calls and she couldn't reach us since she only has Person A's phone number. She also didn't come down to the apartment herself to notify this to us. (she's not at fault in this matter btw)

We managed to calm her down, spoke to her and also Person A and eventually, the RM8,000+ was settled. The landlord also reduced the rent to RM2000. This year (about 3 months ago), Person A's brother, let's call him Person B told us that he's continuing his studies and would rather stay in university accommodation since he too, can't afford the rent. (At this point, we were paying RM670 each for rent)

So right now, Person C (me) and Person D have no other option but to fork out RM1,000 each to cover for the rent. We're basically forking out RM1200 each since there's utilities to be paid etc. Our rental contract expires in May 2020.

Since both Person C (me) and Person D just started our own companies, cashflow isn't very good and it's really heavy on our finance to fork out RM1,000 each just for rental. We have student loans to be paid off and it's eating up our savings very quickly.

The landlord doesn't want us to move out because according to her, she has submitted her tax forms and it would cost her money if we moved out earlier. And she has stated that even if we found a rental replacement, the rent should be at RM2,400 otherwise we can't move out. We've posted on various websites trying to get a replacement but nobody came forward to rent this place because RM2400 is actually a bit on the expensive side to rent at this particular apartment that we live in.

As of now, we have decided to forfeit whatever balance deposit we have (please note that we only have 1 month rental deposit since the landlord initially took away 2 months worth deposit in order to cover for the RM8,000+ owed earlier), and move out to find a cheaper place to rent. I understand that this is not ethical to do but we have no other choice because if we continue staying here, it would land us in deep financial trouble.

So, what are our options? If we do move out without telling the landlord, I'm afraid it would land us in legal trouble and we do not want that. Person A and B seems to not care about this at all even though their names are also in the contract.

Any advice on this please? Thank you in advance.