Problems with Landlord fixing things

We live in NM and are leasing a home through a management company for one year. We fell in love with the location of the home. We found it on our own and no one from the management company went to look at it with us. When we went to sign the lease, we told them that the house was dirty and they assured us it would be cleaned. Signed lease on Wednesday, July 2. The house was being cleaned on Friday, July 4 when we went there. I felt bad for the lady cleaning and told her to only clean the kitchen and that would be fine. She did a good job on the stove and the refrig but that is all. The top of the cabinets are filthy with grease and dust. I have covered them with shelf liner. The carpets were not cleaned until Monday, July 7. We had to buy light bulbs for some of the fixtures, we bought a blind for the laundry room, my husband hung and made the blind fit over the kitchen window, there are paper towels stuffed inside the window in the kitchen to take up space between the screen and inside, one window in the living room we can not raise and my husband had to force it down in order to keep dust from coming inside, the windows were not washed (and they were filthy), the fireplace glass is filthy (and I cannot figure out how to open it to clean it), huge spots have come back in the carpet, the upstairs deck has wood popping up and rotten wood around the door jam, we have an extremely steep back yard (which we are responsible for maintaining the yard) and rain has washed it out in many spots and it is extremely hard to even walk in the yard, there is trash and dust underneath the dryer and my dog keeps getting her paws underneath and dragging it out, I could go on and on. Most recently the garbage disposal got clogged. I called maintenance on Wednesday morning and never heard from them. I called back on Thursday. Friday about noon they called back to say that their maintenance man would be calling me. He came to check it out Friday after 5:00. Within 1 minute he said he could not fix it and would have to call the plumber. The plumber came about 6:00 and was here for about 1 1/2 hours. The disposal was clogged with vegetable peels that had clogged it and the plumber told me that the disposal should not even be used because it did not have enough horsepower for even vegetable peels. Today, Monday, I received a call from the management company that because the disposal was clogged because of me forcing peels down, the owner would not pay for the plumber. Should I be responsible for this charge? I would have called a plumber myself on Wednesday. We have also had another problem when we first moved in. The side by side refrigerator has ice and water through the door however, there is no ice bucket inside to catch the ice. We called this to their attention immediately and when a maintenance man came out said they did not make the parts anymore and he could do nothing about it. So, I have several plastic pans rigged to catch the ice but, ice still goes all over the freezer; needless to say, we also cannot use the ice through the door. When we signed the lease, they sure to point out that if the washer and dryer quit working that they would be removed from the premises, not repaired. Now that all this has come up, we have read our lease more closely and it states in it that if appliance quit working they would be removed and, at the owners discretion, possibly not replaced. Is this legal? Meaning, we would have to buy an appliance to replace them? I am unsure where to turn but I feel like the management company is going to have us pay for repairs on whatever breaks (and the appliances as well as the house are older). I'm not sure if I can break the lease or not.

Why did you sign such a lease? You agreed to those clauses when you signed it. Didn't you read through it thoroughly before you agreed to those? You can't sign and agree to those terms in July and then break the lease over the same terms in September. Check state law on LL responsibilities towards appliances.

You accepted the unit in that condition. You could have held off on signing until the unit was cleaned or items repaired. You could have put those things in writing and asked management to sign that they would be repaired promptly. As it is, you took and acepted the house in that shape. You even told the cleaning lady not to clean anything except the kitchen. You will now be responsible for cleaning it yourself. You should have let her finish her job.

You can write and ask for any needed repairs. Send them in writing to management by certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep a copy and the postcard that comes back. Management will have 30 days to repair anything except emergency repairs. After that, look up state law about repair and deduct remedies.

Next time, read thoroughly before you sign and have all work done to the unit BEFORE you move in.