lawfully breaking lease????

The Florida Dept. Of Health posted a notice on my door that the house was closed for public health and sefety. I contacted the HD and found out I could not use my restroom. I contacted the number I had and got no answere after I had left my message. I moved, breaking lease. The landlord then e-mailed me stating that they only had to pay a permit and we could take down the closed notice and the house was not closed. I am not moving back in. Do I have legal right to break lease?

[OHlandlord]

You need more information from the DOH before I can take a position on this. Why couldn't you use your bathroom? What, specifically, was wrong with the unit to cause them to post the notice? Was there a sewage problem, a plumbing issue, or what? You need to find out immediately. Start calling the phone number for this department and keep calling until you contact a person who can answer these questions. You need to find out if this problem was a temporary item which could have been fixed by the LL or a permanent one.

If your unit was declared inhabitable for some temporary violation of the above issues, the LL would have to abate your rent while he fixed the problem. If he failed to fix the problem, then (and only then) could you have broken your lease. The LL has the right to be able to fix any problem in the unit once notified of the problem PRIOR to you breaking a lease with him. If he took steps to promptly fix the problem, he only would have been responsible to give you those days (when the house was uninhabitable) rent free or to reimburse you for alternative housing for that period. If he took no steps to fix the problem after the DOH notified him, or if the notice was for a permenent problem, you could break your lease.