What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL
Our apartment suffered water damaged due to a pipe breaking in early Feb - which we found to be landlord negligence (they knew of pipes freezing a water prior and did nothing).
After two days of living in a water soaked apartment with only two rooms dry, and with working lights only in those rooms (the water came from two stories up all the way down to the first floor, we were on the second) we were finally offered a hotel room. The cheapest possible, which later had a drug bust!
We were told that the repairs could take 3 to 6 months and we just needed to "settle up" and find somewhere new to live, and even when it was repaired we could come back but not our cat due to them installing new carpets (our cat has been fixed and declawed for over 3 years and allowed in the lease).
Our lease doesnt end until July, and we have now found a new place to live but cannot get our landlord to return the rest of Febs rent (as stated we have rights to in the lease), nor give us a note confirming the issues of a uninhabitable apartment and we no longer owe them money unless we send them a letter stating we want to break the lease. Is this all legal? How can we write a letter stating we want to break the lease when we in fact had no choice but to get our stuff out and find somewhere new to live within a mere week?
For the first week we were at the hotel. Now as said, we have a new apartment but we did have damage to our belongings as well as had to pay for storage now (rather than store items in our garage we had with them which we were also told we had to get our items out of), and for uhaul. Shouldnt they have paid for our damaged items and moving expenses since this was on them?
Please help. Thanks.
Our apartment suffered water damaged due to a pipe breaking in early Feb - which we found to be landlord negligence (they knew of pipes freezing a water prior and did nothing).
After two days of living in a water soaked apartment with only two rooms dry, and with working lights only in those rooms (the water came from two stories up all the way down to the first floor, we were on the second) we were finally offered a hotel room. The cheapest possible, which later had a drug bust!
We were told that the repairs could take 3 to 6 months and we just needed to "settle up" and find somewhere new to live, and even when it was repaired we could come back but not our cat due to them installing new carpets (our cat has been fixed and declawed for over 3 years and allowed in the lease).
Our lease doesnt end until July, and we have now found a new place to live but cannot get our landlord to return the rest of Febs rent (as stated we have rights to in the lease), nor give us a note confirming the issues of a uninhabitable apartment and we no longer owe them money unless we send them a letter stating we want to break the lease. Is this all legal? How can we write a letter stating we want to break the lease when we in fact had no choice but to get our stuff out and find somewhere new to live within a mere week?
For the first week we were at the hotel. Now as said, we have a new apartment but we did have damage to our belongings as well as had to pay for storage now (rather than store items in our garage we had with them which we were also told we had to get our items out of), and for uhaul. Shouldnt they have paid for our damaged items and moving expenses since this was on them?
Please help. Thanks.