Landlord Retaliation in West Texas

[drsbattles]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas - We have a six month lease in a mobile home in Texas (Hays County), in which we have resided since the last week in August. The home was unsafe and unlivable, however, we borrowed over $3,000 to fix up the home ourselves, paid 1/2 deposit of $1,200 which was $600.00, with the intent to pay the other half in October. We also paid for the last week in August of over $300.00, as well as October in advance of $1,200, for a total of over $2,000. The property still is in need of structural repair and dangerous inside and out in places. The air conditioner ran constantly even when turned off. We received a bill from the electric company within a couple of days of residency from the utilities company of $23.00, and a $625.00 bill for the month of August. When attempting to make arrangements on rent due for October 1st delayed until at least the 5th of $1,200 + the second half of the deposit, our landlord was extremely unconscionable, and threatened to evict us. Mind you it is only the 29th of September, and we are not late on rent, and have added value to her property. What can we do to protect ourselves as she continues to press on this issue? Can we put rent money in escrow with the courts in the state of Texas? We are from another state. Her actions are really considered as "retaliation". This landlord is broke, and is a slum-lord. We have before and after pictures, as well as data from the various contractor's hired to help bring the property to a point where we could move in. Code enforcement needs to be involved as well. One of the young men sent out from the air conditioner repair company fell off of the wooden steps through the rails, and nearly was physically hurt a week ago. The company worker fixed temporarily fixed the rail, but it is still week, as is the visibly ill repaired deck with exposed raised wood, nails, a hot tub that doesn't work, but is rather an eyesore. The tub houses unused wood and other debris. This is just the half of it. We are thankful for the opportunity to have the opportunity for good credit history in our new state, however, being harassed with our we extended ourselves in such a kind way is inhumane, and shows lack of decency on the part of this greedy person.