Left Apartment That Was Not Ready For Rent, But Was Not Notified Of It's Status Until Day Of Arrival
I recently had to move from Florida to Georgia for a position and had to go into an apartment sight unseen due to timing of my previous position ending and this one starting. The photos I was sent by landlord did not accurately reflect the current condition of the location.
Hours before my arrival I received a message from the landlord informing me that there were a few things from the previous tenants that they hadn't been able to get out before my arrival (we discussed my move in date 3 weeks ago), and that they would be going through and fixing other things such as light structures whenever they had a chance. Upon arrival I realized it was much worse than what was described. There was an entire bedroom full of things and 2 couches plus boxes in the living room, all of the ceiling lights and fans had exposed wiring or were broken, both bathrooms had mold growth occuring on the ceiling, peeling paint on the ceiling and one had some sort of yellow liquid dripping all over the wall, there was a massive clump of mold growth under the kitchen sink where it seemed a previous tenate had tried to cover a spot that had rotted all the way through with ankther piece of wood. Additionally the only smoke detector in the entire 3 story apartment was just broken on the ground (it obviously was filthy everywhere in thereon top of that). I alerted the landlord about all of these and was met with, yeah we will fix that hopefully next week. I had moved from a 3 bedroom, fully furnished house so I had way to much stuff for them to be doing construction around and didn't want to mess with all the mold and other growth that was happening health wise so I elected go find a different place while I still had everything packed and because I had only a few days before my start date.
My question is what should I do with this place, I unfortunately signed a lease with the landlord (I understand I fucked that one up but circumstances didn't allow me to do an in person walk through so nothing I can do now), but I do not believe it met the livable standards. Should I inform the landlord or my desire to break the lease? I understand they will hold me liable for rent until they find a new tenant. If that's the case can I still contact them and hold them reliable for making the necessary repairs so maybe people will at least be able to live in it? Or am I just overall fucked?
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