My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Orlando, FL
Ok, so we rented this house, and had talked the landlord down in rent in exchange for some services (we offered to clean debris in the backyard, and to paint the house). We have lived here for about 2 months now, and it's flooded 3 times. I wanna think that the house is on a sinkhole. We took videos, I could upload them if someone wants to see. The house is a block style home with a tar roof. The rood just started leaking in my laundry room over my washing machine last night also.
The house seems to be unlevel, and when it rains heavy, the water doesn't go anywhere, it just sits in my lawn and then starts coming in under the doors (not just a regular front door, my back patio door also). My roommate swears it is also coming up from the floor (like the ground is saturated) but I can't tell.
I hope I am providing enough detail about the flooding. We told her we would try and fix the flooding, but she needed to pay for the materials. She agreed, and that was over a month ago, now we can't get in touch with her. Right now I had to take my garbage can and shovel out a pool in my back porch because she(landlord) had it walled up with wooden planks that weren't even nailed down, they fall all of the time and we put them back but we're so broke we can't afford to buy the necessary items for these extra repairs.
So what can we do? Can we break lease and move? Get a rent reduction? Withhold rent until she fixes it? I don't wanna be a dick but I am afraid to use my kitchen OR my washer for fear of being electrocuted, and all of my linens are now molding from being soaked and wet, and this is just the beginning of Hurricane Season here in FL. It is going to start down-pouring every day. This is unlivable and we have asked her many times to fix it. What do we do? We don't have the money for a lawyer (if we did, maybe we could have bought something to fix the flooding ourselves ya?)![]()

