Uninhabitable apartment allows you to break the lease

Dear Liz: Our apartment was infested with bugs, had a leaky bathroom faucet that was never fixed after numerous requests, and then our ceiling fell in because of a roof leak that was not repaired. We had to make other living arrangements before vacating the apartment, and now they are saying we’re responsible for $1,800 for terminating our lease early.

Answer: In every state except Arkansas, the law requires landlords to provide “fit and habitable” housing, said attorney Janet Portman, the managing editor of legal self-help publisher Nolo and author of “Every Tenant’s Legal Guide.” “Fit and habitable” typically means the housing is waterproof and free from vermin infestation. The housing also must have heat, lights, water, functional plumbing and a working kitchen.

If the housing isn’t fit and habitable, you legally can break the lease if you didn’t cause the problem yourself and you gave the landlord a reasonable amount of time to fix the problems.

Fixed means fixed, by the way; you can break the lease if your apartment is still infested, even if the landlord has treated the infestation repeatedly, Portman said. You can consult Portman’s book and a local tenants’ rights organization for more information.