Hi,
we met our landlord and viewed his property in March. When we saw it, the hardwood floors were covered in paint splotches, but he told us he was working on sanding the floors down and showed us where he'd started.
He also told us he was going to remodel the kitchen, paint, build a deck, install a garage door opener and remove all of the (tons) of refuse from the house, especially the basement. We signed a lease in April, which stated that he would have these (among other) alterations to the property done by June 1.
For weeks, we were emailing back and forth as he asked us our opinion on cabinets, tile, paint and so on. He also gave us "updates" via email, saying things such as "I'm going to be working on the property full time as of next week..." etc.
The last time we met with him before our move-in date, he told us he'd be all finished before May 30 and that we could move in on the 30th (we offered pro-rated rent). We explained that we would be renting our truck and lining up our help (muscle) to move on this date.
When we showed up on the morning of the 30th with packed U-haul in tow, we were shocked and dismayed to find that NOTHING had been done. The owner was on the floor of the living room trying to clean some of the paint off with chemicals with no success. He told us he changed his mind about sanding the floors and would try to clean the floors as best he could. We insisted that he could not hand the property over to us with the floors covered in paint, so we rented a floor sander (at our $167 expense) so he could finish the floors.
He insisted that he would finish the kitchen the next day and the deck by the weekend (which would already go beyond the 1st).
Now, it is June 4 - There is a double-door shaped HOLE in the back wall of the house, there is NO kitchen, including running water, etc., the basement is full of trash, he has an old car in our driveway so we can't use it. The garage is full of trash and unusable, everything is FILTHY and covered with a layer of the dust from sanding the floors. We are unable to be downstairs because he is 'working' on the kitchen and because the LR and DR are full of all of our stuff (after 3 days of having our things in a Uhaul, we couldn't afford to keep it another day). We have spent over $500 feeding our family fast-food because we don't have use of our kitchen, among several other costs we have incurred as a result of this guy's breach of the lease provisions.
At this point, we just want out. He has $1500 of our money as a deposit (has had it since April). Ideally, we would like to move out right away, but we are afraid he may try to keep our money, and we cannot afford to move again without it. I also cannot afford to have my three children (all under 5) living in this house with all the dangers and hazards that lurk around.
Can anyone offer a word of advice? What should we do? Should we talk to the guy and see if he'll be human and return our money? Should we send him a CRRR letter of some sort? Aren't we just entitled to move out, since the house is not habitable? Please help - we want out NOW before he finishes and says everything is fine. We don't trust this guy now and he's supposed to fix the heating before the winter but I dont trust him to do it. BTW - he mentioned to my husband (after we'd moved in) that he 1) doesn't have a landlord license and 2) the house doesn't have an occupancy permit What does this mean and could it help us?

