my rental home was damaged during storm and landlord made neccessary…

Hello again -

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If the lease specifically states that there must be a CO for the property and the landlord has never had one and the local authorities require one, then there is a breach of the lease. You need to be careful with this, though. First you need to speak with the local building authorities to determine if a CO is issued to all buildings there - you cannot just assume that the local authorities require this because in many instances, the local authorities do not call it a "CO" -- but if they sign off on the last building permit that the work is complete then it may be sufficient for the local authorities as the CO (or permission to occupy the premises). There also may be a situation where a CO is not even required for this property because of the age of the property and any renovation/repair work is grandfathered under prior laws that did not require a specific CO for this property. When it comes to individual houses in local municipalities like this, there simply may not be a requirement for the LL to have an actual CO and if that is the case then there may be no way for him to obtain an actual CO. So this is something that you should investigate at the local city or county seat and find out if the CO is required and if he can actually get a CO (give them your address and ask them to look up the building documents and see what is there -- it is all public information - and speak to a building inspector to get the full word on this so you can be sure that you are correct). If that is the case then you can use the breach of the lease if you are interested in leaving before your lease is up -- and then when the LL pursues you for doing that then you use the lack of the CO as your defense and the claim for damages against you for leaving the lease early would generally be dismissed.

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MARY