Tried to be an Excellent Tenant

[Bob Ster]

I'm actually a tenant with high rent in a great neighborhood. For a year I've tried to get the owner to take action on various repairs by texting and email rather than sending certified mail to put them on notice per TX lease laws. They've been very slow to respond to things that are not arguably directly health or safety issues, but this house is falling apart. Most recently we've washed dishes by hand for two months waiting for them to replace the dishwasher. At the same time I've had six separate incidents of vandalism and theft and we just want to get out.

During covid shut down we could have terminated because of an addendum we had concerning short term rental. We could have withheld and deferred three months of rent, which would have been financially devastating to the owner. We've made improvements to the home and it's in a far better condition than when we received it. 

Having said all of that I intend to put them on notice for Safety violations and Repairs that are still not addressed. Even after looking at lease law in TX it's still not clear to me if we can terminate our lease if something is not addressed that is a Health or Safety issue. As inconvenient and discouraging as it is to wash dishes by hand (family of 7, 2 hours a day) I'm not sure a non-functioning dishwasher rises to an issue that can allow someone to terminate. Same thing regarding leaking fixtures. We have $400+ water bills whereas they are usually $160-ish. I know we have LL that are extremely experienced and understand LL obligations for repairs. Please help!