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Should/Can I Break My Lease?

I'm living in a 1bed/1bath house that looks like a tiny converted shed in the back of a regular property.

So basically the floors/walls of my tiled bedroom leak water. Every time it rains a considerate amount of water (imagine how the shower/bathtub floor is wet after you take a shower; you wouldn't walk around with socks) seeps out of the grout/cracks/corners/edges of the wall and tile. I've told my landlord about this and have been pretty good about following up about it. Maintenance was supposed to fix it what seems like weeks ago, but we were waiting for "dryer weather" (I live in Seattle) since whatever they were using to fix it won't work if you apply it to wet cement or something.

What worries me is that she implied it's something wrong with the actual foundation of the house. I'm not trying to like, sit in this fucked up house waiting for it to slowly crumble into pieces so my landlord can fix it after she's collected my $12,000+ to pay for the damages. I'm thinking I could make a complaint to the government and get the place checked over and see if it's breaking any codes?? Tenant laws state that landlords have 10 days to fix generally any problems...and it's been well beyond that time frame.

TLD;DR: My house leaks water in my bedroom and I'm pretty sure that it breaks some codes/ my landlord didn't fix it within the time frame provided by Washington state laws. I don't wanna really live in a shallow pond for 10 more months & hoping I have grounds to break my lease without having to pay a fine.

Posted Feb 25, 2016, 1:34 AM UTC

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