Can I hold back rent?

[kayanden]

I have been renting this house for going on three years. In the back yard is a junk car and two broken down wood buildings filled with garbage. They have been "removing" them since I moved in. There is an anchor in the middle of the front yard that is too heavy for me to move, so I have to mow around it. The house is being held up with bricks and pieces of wood.(no joke, I have pictures) When I moved here I had to fix every screen. It took me 18 months to get a 75 foot oak tree cut that was going to fall on the house. The front entrance door is a makeshift door made out of plywood,it is hollow. The back patio door has been broken since I moved in, but now it doesn't work at all. When you open the door the frame comes without the glass, and the glass will fall out if you open it all the way. In Feb of 2005 I informed them in writing that the door needed to be repaired. They said when the weather gets better. A month ago, when I could not use the door at all, I spoke with the landlady and she said that it was a very bad time for them and it could not be fixed right now. They had to go to Europe. There back! The door is not fixed. I live on a fixed income. The only way for me to move is to not pay the rent here for a couple of months. Can I do that? This is not a legal rental.

 

[kayanden]

Thanks for all the replies.

I don't know what I'm going to do with all this info.