Hello there

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If there are health, safety concerns and/or habitability issues with your house or apartment, you can break the lease using a number of legal theories. First, if you notify the landlord of serious health, safety and/or habitability issues and the landlord does not immediately rectify the problem, then you can claim that the landlord has breached the implied warranty of habitability by failing to provide you a healthy environment with which to live in and you can then claim that he "constructively evicted" you from the house because he failed to do anything about the problems which severely inhibited your use of the house while you were there. If you make such a claim and move out, the landlord may pursue you in court for the remaining rental payments and try to claim that you had no justification for leaving or that the problems you claimed made the house not habitable for you and your family were not as bad as you are claiming. That is why you must either call the local board of health and/or inspectional services department (boards of health and building departments are sometimes merged in some cities and towns so you should call town or city hall and ask them what the correct department it is that you need to report a mold problem) OR you should hire your own house inspector to review the mold issue and test the air quality in the house to determine if there is an unusually high level of mold and spore activity in the house. If the local building dept / board of health finds issues with the air quality then you have a great claim of constructive eviction and if you hire your own inspector and the same results are found in the house then you have a good case if constructive eviction against the landlord (it is usually better in a court's eye if the local authorities have found issues with the house and your case is usually a bit stronger than if you have your own inspector perform the same tests). In addition to air quality tests by either the local authorities or your own inspector (or both) you should get your son to his doctor and anyone else having problems with this to the doctor and start documenting the doctor's visits to show how the house is making you all sick. Finally, if there are safety and security concerns in your neighborhood that you were unaware of when you moved in, you should get as much information together regarding incidents close by to your house so that you have additional documentation to go with any claim for the habitability and health issues created by the house. The general rule of thumb is that the more building and houseing and health violations you can come up with in this situation, the better off you will be if you move out prior to the end of your lease term.

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Once you have enough hard proof to substantiate the issues that you and your family are having, you should write a letter to the landlord and send it certified mail and let the LL know that because of the violations of the warranty of habitability in the house and the effect that the air quality and mold is having on everyone's health, the landlord is in breach of the lease agreement and the landlord has constructively evicted you from the house, and you will be leaving the house on XXXXX date. You can tell the landlord that if he disagrees and wants to pursue this or does pursue this matter against you then you will countersue for breach of contract, loss of use of some of the premises, moving costs because you were constructively evicted from the house and personal injuries if any of the medical issues suffered by your son and other family members seem to be permanent in nature once you leave the house.

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Once you leave the premises, the landlord has a legal duty to mitigate damages and advertise and rent the place out as quickly as possible (the landlord cannot just leave it empty for your entire lease term and then try to collect the balance from you of the remaining months on the lease -- landlord must try to rent the place (unless the health hazards in the house force the local board of health to ban tenants until the place is cleaned up and if that happens you will be off the hook for any remaining lease months anyway)). So, even if the landlord is successful in claiming that you did not have the legal right to leave early and he did not breach the lease contract first, he still must rent it out again as quickly as possible (which typically takes a month or two) and you could be held responsible for the months when the house was empty and he was searching for a new tenant to take your place.

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Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that even if you have the building inspector on your side and mounds of proof of an air issue and/or mold problem in the house that the landlord will not try to take you to court for the remaining months on the lease. The only thing you can do is try to get as much documentation as possible of the condition (inspections, air quality tests, medical reports and pictures of any visible mold if you can find any will all help) and then you go forth and present it all in court and you most likely have a pretty good shot of beating the landlord in the court room if he does try to pursue you after you leave -- and if the judge finds in your favor then you may be able to recoup some of the money that you spend on air testing and moving from the house into a new house or apartment.

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I do hope that lengthy explanation was helpful. If you have further questions, please let me know. I will be going offline for a few hours to bed but will pick up further questions from you immediately upon my return. If you have no further questions, can you please press the 3rd, 4th or 5th smile face below to rate me and pay me for my time? THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!