need a lawyer (San Diego: lease, how much, new house)

[eeple]

Hi,

We moved to San Diego a months ago. We are from Europa and rented a house without seeing it. When we moved in there was a nasty smell in it and we found out that the house is damaged from the water and have mold in it. We had a contract for a half year but since we found out that it is not possible to live in it we asked to move from the place. The owner agreed with it and started to find people that can repair the house. They will cut out the walls and dry almost all walls. When the owner sed we can move out it took only one week until we found a new house (very nice we love it). On friday came a mitigation service and wanted to start they job it meens put a big noisy maskins in the house all day and night. We did not know it and sed that we will move out next week (we moved out on monday and they started they work on monday) and do not want big noisy maskins in the house.
We do not want to pay the hole rent for the period we lived her, becouse we had so many problems, people comming in and out looking at house etc. We was very helpsom and was at home to meet the different companies, as the owner is out of the country.
Now the owners says that we delayed mitigation service, becouse we sed no to these big noisy maskins on friday at it
increased the damage and thereby increased the*costs of repairs. And that we have to pay the hole rent and be happy that he sed we can move out before end of conract. That the low do not require to do it.
We think it does becouse the house is not habitable to live in and has a health hazard involved. We have to small children and the messurements for the innside air quality was very bad and the mold expert sed to us-move out.

Do we have a case? Shall we do something with it? Maybe we go to the lawyer and ask all the rent back? The rent was 3800 dollars in moths. Or we just have to forget it?

[bloom]

Did you view the house via the internet (interior or googlemaps streetview) before you signed lease?
What general neighborhood?
How many BR?
Of the 6 months, how many have you lived there? Of those months, how many did you pay rent? How many months remaining of the 6 left?
Can you clarify what the landlord expects you to pay? $3800 x 6 minus what you already paid in rent?

[eeple]

Originally Posted by bloom

Did you view the house via the internet (interior or googlemaps streetview) before you signed lease?
What general neighborhood?
How many BR?
Of the 6 months, how many have you lived there? Of those months, how many did you pay rent? How many months remaining of the 6 left?
Can you clarify what the landlord expects you to pay? $3800 x 6 minus what you already paid in rent?

Yes we saw some pictures, but of course in the pictures and google we can not see mold and that the walls of the house are wet.
Neighborhood-la jolla
5 BR
We lived there only 3 weeks because from the day 1 we understand that something is wrong-smell, mold,dust
We did not want to stay in the house and asked for an other place to live in day 1 until they clean the house, we did not know then that it is a much bigger problem. The owner did not agree with it and sed that cleanliness is a subjectiv question. We sent a long e mail to him with pictures and he agreed that the house need cleaning. It was cleaning company that sed to us that they just remove the mold but not the problem that coused it and the nasty smell was still there. And after that we hired a mold expert that found out that the walls are wet etc.
He want us to pay for these 3 weeks we lived there and sed he will pay back depositum and prepaid rent but have not done it yet. We do not want to pay him full rent just the half becouse these 3 weeks in his house was a nightmare.

[bloom]

So, is the total amount in dispute 3 weeks rent (~$3K) and you are off the hook for the lease break and 5 months (~$20K)? Or are you also responsible for the lease break, and if so, how much are you responsible for?