How to get out of an apartment lease? PLEASE HELP!

[Steve S.]

I've been living in an apartment the last couple of years while accumulating more money for my rental investments. 

In May of this year I started to have some a/c issues.  The weather was getting warmer (gets REALLY hot here in the summer) and the a/c would run but wasn't putting out really cold air.  As a result, I'd come home from work and the apartment would be about 79 degrees and no amount of running the a/c would cool off the apartment below 79 degrees until after midnight at the earliest.

My elderly parents had to stop visiting and staying the night because it was too hot as everyone would sit here and sweat.

To make a long story short, the apartment management would come check the a/c and tell me everything was fine.  they did this about 10 times with no relief only to have it get hotter and hotter into august and even through october. 

They never did anything to improvce the situation.  I took pictures and videos of the a/c unit documenting that it is 25 years old (from 1995) and they have squeezed every bit of profit out of it that they can.  They didn't care and said all is working just fine.

Then in November we had a cold snap and it got down to 20 degrees.  I could feel arctic chilled air coming through the door and window and the heater couldn't heat the apartment (only 750 square feet) to a liveable temperature.  We stayed the night with friends for a few nights until the cold went away.

I again opened a service request to the apartment management company and they came by and said all was fine.  I asked them to put some weather stripping on the doors which they did about 2 weeks later.

I begged them to not "run out the clock" on the heat, which they did by doing nothing to resolve the situation.

THEN, they were doing some work on our building and when i left in the evening i noticed it was pitch black in our stairwell.  They forgot to turn back on the electricity for the external lights.  Someone could have easily been hiding in the stairwell or could trip and fall and hurt them selves navigating the antiquated stairwell in the pitch black.

When returning from the grocery store in the pitch black, i tripped on the stairs and broke about $20 worth of glass bottles and was lucky to not hurt myself.  I sent the apartment pictures and video of what happened and how dark it was and asked for compensation for my broken groceries now dripping all over the floor in the shattered glass outside. i told them they were lucky there wasn't a hospital bill coming with it from the fall or cutting oneself in the shattered glass.

That was on top of the fact that my neighbor upstairs has had toilet issues the last 3 weeks.  When he flushes the toilet, often his toilet is overflowing and urine and feces liquid is coming through the ceiling through the bathroom fan and dripping all over the toilet and the floor.

This has happened and been documented 4 times, that I'm aware of as certainly it happens when i don't happen to be here.  I've raised this issue as well to the apartment complex and they have done nothing about it. 

My mom was sitting on the toilet this morning when this happened and it came through the ceiling on her.

Lastly, the smoke detector didn't go off once when i was cooking.  I tested it by blowing out some matches against it to pour smoke over it and nothing happened.  I went and bought my own smoke detector just in case to ensure i would be alerted in a fire if they never came and tested or fixed my smoke detector which they haven't and i don't expect they ever will.

I have kindly asked to get out of my lease which has over 4 months left on it.  No amount of fixing any of this will change what they've already done, cost me and inconvenienced me.

What can i do?  At this point they have flatly said there is nothign they will do to let me out of my lease unless i pay all the fees, etc.

I don't feel safe here.  They are putting my family at risk. 

Would getting a lawyer help?  WOuld blasting this all over social media and apartment complex rating websites help and sending them the links?

I've never had a complaint at an apartment before and have been patient in this situation but enough is enough!

Can i get the city / county inspectors involved?  At this point, we just want out and to part ways, which i would be happy to do quietly, but they refuse to let me out without paying thousands of $$$.

What obligation does the complex have to test my smoke detector and ensure it is in working order?

It's time to take action and I need your help.  They are essentially stealing my rent each month and not holding up their end of the bargain.

They said i signed something in my lease to not write about them on social media but 1) i couldn't find it and 2) what is wrong with stating the documented truth?  I have the emails from them and the pictures and videos to prove everything i have said in this post.