Rent Abatement

[Taurean5869]

Hello, I have a landlord who has refused to make repairs in two of his properties. Why you ask did I choose to live in another one of his properties? Not enough $ for move in fees somewhere else. The Inland fair housing and mediation board was not really helpful. He refused to negotiate. We are fed up after much communication, offering to fix things ourselves if he would just reimburse us, in good faith we would not spend too much as long as he reimbursed. We have given our thirty days notice so this becomes a ''rent abatement'' issue. This is not a discrimination issue so the DFEH is out. I do own the CA tenant/landlord handbook so I know the difference between habitability vs. cosmetic. A code enforcement investigation is already open on one of the properties and I am having an investigator come by this week to this property. Is small claims court my only option? I have alot of documentation. Pictures, communications etc. What would you suggest as being the most powerful evidence?
Also after he spoke to the InlandMedboard I got this bizarre letter from him saying the Housing Auth said we had been 'inconvenienced', 'why did we feel inconvenienced?', 'he's so happy to come look at the property'. This is after a very specific statement by him saying 'he's not putting anymore money into that house' Why the strange letter? Should I respond? I have sent him written requests. I even sent someone personally to his office with a picture of the damage saying in writing all we required was reimbursement, we would fix this ourselves. Unfortunately these communications were not certified but they did admit they had received them on paper. Unfortunately this is not true on one of the properties, when the landlord told my partner he would fix the broken windows, I foolishly trusted his word since he was letting someone live with broken windows in his house and every time his maintenance guy came through I mentioned it to him. So I might not get anywhere with that one. Why would the court believe me if I have no written proof? Despite the fact he was there when the keys were passed over, he said he'd fix the windows and then never wrote a check re: new windows at that address. I'm sure they'll think I like living with broken windows in the dust of the desert. Too bad I trusted his integrity. He used to be the mayor of this town, politician....gross
The landlord has had plenty of time to fix the repairs in this property ie our communication beginning in Dec-Jan. So we are past that point. I have been very patient and have followed the correct order of engagement, I even offered to fix things myself. He had forced me to take matters into my own hands. The mediation/code enforcement will merely reinforce his negligence in court help show that the rent we were paying was too high. I agree we should pay some rent but not as much as we were. Do you know where I can go to find out the fair market value for rent of a unit in a particular area? We have lived here since Dec. Thank you for your advice.