How to proceed with landlord (NC)

Hi!

I posted on here about 2 weeks ago asking if we could legally get out of our mouse infested house that we just moved into in February.

The landlord had an exterminator come 2 weeks ago to address the mouse infestation. The exterminator confirmed structural damage to the property including MANY holes in the structure allowing them in as well as confirmed mouse droppings, burrowing in the attic and another storage room. The landlord had some of the holes filled and the exterminator laid traps and bait.

presently, the mice infestation has gotten worse.

We have droppings in every single room of the house: upstairs, downstairs, on the stairs, in the kitchen, on our furniture, in the bathrooms ext. we haven’t caught a single mouse and have not smelled anything foul in the house. We are constantly cleaning up droppings and constantly hearing them run in the walls.

I have documented evidence of all the droppings and have videos of them in our walls.

We contacted our landlord and requested a formal lease termination due to it not being habitable.

He tried to ignore us and only had an exterminator reach out to us to come back. We again insisted it’s not habitable. He said that the house is “clean” so it’s habitable. Don’t know how a house filled with toxic mouse poop is clean but okay.

He offered:

1. To put us in an air b and b for 1 week.

2. We’d have to forfeit deposit as well as pay 4 months of rent.

3. Have to pay until a new tenant moves in. (How is this part legal?? Can he actually rent out the house as an active mouse infestation is happening?)

The exterminator came today and confirmed it’s still active (no duh) and most likely multiple mice due to the video of them running & amount of droppings & how many areas we find droppings in. Also said some of the holes he recommended to the landlord to fix were left unattended.

Please help. We cannot afford paying that much rent as our wedding is in June of this year. We aren’t sleeping and are scared to cook and eat in the house. Do we have a case? How do we proceed?