Compensation for poor living conditions
Thank you to anyone who can assist us!
My roommates and I recently moved to a new house that is managed by a leasing company. One month prior to moving in we made a 100 page document with photos and descriptions of things we would like to be fixed before moving in. The list contained some minor things, like cracked outlet covers, and many major things, like a deck with rotting support beams, broken windows, a half-installed dishwasher, lights that don't work, etc.
The company hired contractors that did not fix any of these issues, yet reported that they were fixed. The leasing company is not local and does not check that the work is finished. As such, we have left work several times to check that the repairs were made only to find out that they were not. We have tried for over two weeks to have the company fix these issues and they are not resolved.
In addition to all of this, we have learned that the house was inhabited by squatters for years. When we showed up to check on repairs, we once found three teenage girls smoking a bong in the kitchen.
Upon moving into the house we learned that the heat does not work, there is no hot water, and only half of the house has electricity. Plugging anything into some of the outlets causes them to spark.
My father is a building code inspector and he found 10 code violations, which we will also be reporting to them.
I am wondering how much compensation we can ask for. We have lived in the house for 3 days and still don't have basic necessities. They have finally hired a contractor he seems to know what he's doing, but it may be several more days before some of these things are fixed. Some of these bigger projects (making the deck safe) will take longer and inconvenience us with construction, etc.
How much can we ask for?