Cancel lease prior to move in?

By Lori A

My college age daughter (20) signed a lease with 4 other girls.  The house is located on a college campus, so rent is high.  They paid 6000 down between the 5 of them as deposit and 1 month rent.  They signed the lease Oct 9 2012 with a move in date of Aug 2013.  Me and another mom viewed the house today because we were on campus.  The house is currently rented to 5 college guys who graduate this year.  The house is absolutely filthy and not just dirty.  The landlord took us through the house and just laughed off the conditions.  She was not at all bothered by the condition of the house as she showed it to us.  The yard and exterior of the home are a mess, no maintenance has been done recently.  The basement is filled with cobwebs and a mouse that I noticed.  Lights don’t work.  The hot water heater will not service 5 people at once.  The AC unit appears to have had a huge object dropped on it from a balcony above.  At least thats what she told us. The landlord states it works despite the huge gouge in it.  The wood floor is rotting away.  The landlord opened a basement door to the outside that served as a garage before and closed it and "secured" it with a board to prevent it from opening and said it was the most secure door in the house.  A shower has been installed by the back door that mainly blocks the entrance to the basement and she called it a "split full bath" as in goes with the toilet off the kitchen.  I am not confident this house is safe to live in, filth aside. Can this lease be broken?  The girls don’t move in for 9 more months.  Landlord states they will have it professionally cleaned however, cleaning will not remedy this mess.  She indicated she will not do much for cleaning up in the basement because "most people don’t use it".  I feel like lead paint is an issue also.  I am not confident the stove works either. 

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Holy Cow, we couldn't find any other related post. Sorry. :(