Moved into rental house 7 months ago. One week before moving halfway across country, landlord called and said he just learned the house had no certificate of occupancy, offered us a different house. We declined the other house and asked that he either complete C of O requirements or return all of our money immediately (over $13,000) so we could rent somewhere else. He did neither, but said he would complete C of O shortly, and we could just move in meanwhile. We drove 600 miles with kids and pets, arrived late at night, and found out that landlord had sent us the wrong keys. Climbed in through kitchen window and found out that house was a wreck. We have a lease addendum that stated 10 items which must be repaired/completed before we moved in (they had 2 months to do it). Also have in writing that all repairs were done. When we got here, 6 of 10 items were actually not done. Landlord promised to rectify quickly and asked us to keep a low profile so he wouldn't get in trouble with the city. We really had no choice as we had nowhere else to go, and he had all of our money. Landlord has done some repairs, but over the last 7 months we have had bedroom flooded through ceiling 3 times, kitchen flooded through ceiling and walls no less than 10 times, sewage backup in basement 5 times, property manager has entered the property while I was showering and my 4 year old son was watching tv, bank has been out to take photos of property and inquire as to why mortgage is not being paid, broken dishwasher, broken toilets, so much moisture in our ceiling that the paint falls off in chunks, landlord never notified us where sec. deposit is being held despite two written requests, and the list goes on. Two months ago, I wrote and notified landlord that heat was not working properly. He sent out two people to fix it, neither knew how. The last I heard from landlord was one month ago when someone else was supposed to come out to look at the heat and never did. We do have heat, it just doesn't run on its own, we have to control it manually. It's not that horrible during the day, but at night our choices are to either turn it off and freeze, or leave it running all night long and endure miserable heat.
Sent landlord notice on Jan 1. via certified mail that we were withholding rent until heat was fixed and other issues addressed (there's still no Certificate of Occupancy, can't use master shower without flooding the kitchen, more sewage in basement). Property manager came out with hvac guy and ascertained that the heat works just fine, but they're going to have to redo the entire system in order for us to have heat on the first floor. E-mailed me that they need me to pay rent before they can fix heat. I responded that would not be happening. Landlord sent me e-mail threatening eviction proceedings and welcoming us to leave.

I have photographs and over 200 e-mails from landlord/property manager documenting everything that has happened from day one. Also can take rent money to court. We found a house this week, and are in the process of buying. If all goes well we should be able to close by the end of the month. I have no problem with going to court, I just want to get the h*ll out of here, get my security deposit back, and not pay them another dime (quite frankly I'd like all of the money back that we've paid them, over $30,000 in 7 months, but I'm sure that's not realistic).

Are we going to be forced to pay these jokers?

The rental property inspector would be a great help here.