Breaking Lease on House Rental In Florida

[Kotamine]

Hi,
My husband and I are renting a house in Florida The lease started April 1st, 2008. He started a new job just before we moved.

We have 2 problems:
1.) We are dealing with a landlord's agent (stated in our lease) not the owner in regards to problems we have been having with the water . The house is well and septic. The water system was not working when we first moved in and the house smelled of horrible rotten eggs. My husband is a facilities manager so he knows enough about water systems. He ran all the faucets and flushed the hot water tank out. When he looked over the system he seen that the regeneration timer was broke. We called the agent and he sent a company out the next day and they fixed the timer and set it to regenerate every three days. A month later the pump burned out and we did not have any water this was on a Friday. When we called he had us call the same company that came out the first time. They told us that they did not have anyone that could come out to fix it after hours and that it was his anniversary and he was taking his wife out to dinner. Sorry! We called the agent back and he told us we would have to wait till Monday. Well my husband was very upset and told the agent that it was not very professional in this business to not have back up to come out. He told him to put himself in our position and what would he do. He told us we were being unreasonable and would have to wait. My husband said I am not going with out a shower and went to Home Depot bought the parts came home to try to do a temporary fix to at least let us take a shower. While he was fixing the pipes and pump a service guy from another company showed up with no phone call from him or the agent. First he stood there and watched my husband do the work. My husband told him well since your here you my as well finish the job. It was recommended that a new pump be put in. We called the agent and told him, he was not happy but 2 days later without letting us know the original guys came out with a new pump. Everything was flushed again. In the mean time we still have this rotten egg smell. They told us that we need to either buy or rent a a stage 2 carbon filter that would take care of the majority of the taste and smell, we were not guaranteed 100%. We did bring in a third person it was free to test the water and the iron was a little high but manageable. We had a very high sulfer content in the water of course manageable with a new system. We were told it was because the builder did not go down deep enough when he dug the well. Our investment just to rent the unit would be about $300 dollars to set up then 30 dollars a month. I did get 3 different people and each said basically the same thing, prices varied not by much. If that did not work they would have to re-bed the system. In the mean time I have to put up with the stench of this rotten egg smell which fills the whole house up with it. Running the faucets in any sink, doing laundry taking a shower, and I just want to throw up when I brush my teeth or wash my face or flush a toilet so on and so forth. Also I know my allergy's have also flared up worse then ever. Not only do I have to put up with it inside but I have to put up with it outside because our neighbors and us have sprinkler systems coming off the well. We were told that we need to add this other system. That's like raising our rent.

2) I have not been able to find a job so we are barely able to pay are bills. Some I am sending in late and we have been living also on our credit cards (not good). At this point we are living from penny to penny, day to day. And now I been sick and am ready to throw in the towel.

I started crying tonight because i just can't take the stress of it all and arguing with my husband over a rental house that should not cost us this extra money.

Every month when I take the rent over I tell the agent that we still have this problem and his answer is basically we live with it or rent the extra equipment.

Can we break our lease and move on without bad consequences for breaking it. I can't take much more of this water.

Help please advise!
K

You said you had the water tested. Was it by a health department of a water company (EPA certified)? Have the water tested by them. If it tests drinkable, I'm afraid you have no cause to break the lease over this. If you wish the extra system, you will have to pay for it.

If tests say the water is unpotable (not fit for drinking), then you can write a certified letter to the agent and send a copy of the certified test results, asking for repairs. If he doesn't fix it, you can look into rent withholding (call the clerk of court) or breaking your lease.

[Kotamine]

We had the water tested by 2 reputable water softner companies. The sulphur, (hydrogen sulphide), order tested at 2 - 3 parts per million. To my understanding that's very high. We are having the water tested by the health dept. also. The odor comes from both the cold and the hot water. They don't think there is bacteria in the water, still being tested. That takes time. So in the mean time we have to put up with this horrible rotten egg smell or invest money in a rental. Does not make since to me and I feel that this is unacceptable. We have been here 3 months. Day one we had turned the faucets on while the owners agent was here and he got a good whiff. Why do we have to pay???

You have to pay because, as of yet, you have no documented proof that there is anything far enough wrong to make the house uninhabitable. When you get that proof, you can leave the house, with the LL giving you a rent abatement for the period when you have to live elsewhere until he corrects the problem. Although I believe you when you state the problem, a court may not without proof.