Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Nothing you have mentioned constitutes uninhabitability under the law. So you are breaking the lease without legal grounds. In order to have legal grounds you would need a court determination that the landlord misled you about conditions or that after notice and reasonable opportunity to resolve the problems that are within the landlord's control, if any, the landord failed to do so. AND that the problems under the landord's control, if any, were so bad that they constituted a breach of the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment (which does NOT mean a quiet neighborhood - it means without substaintial interference with your ability to occupy and use the property. The bottom line is that unless there is a lot you have left out, you are illegally breaking the lease. Under those circumstances what the property manager is demanding - cost of re-renting the property plus rent until a new tenant is found - is exactly what they are entitled to get from you. As for the license, that is to protect the landlord from unqualified and unscrupulous managers - tenants have no rights regarding the property manager's license or lack thereof. The only thing in your favor in all this is that the owner and/or manager is obligated to take all commercially reasonable steps to find a new tenant as soon as possible. If they fail to do so, they cannot charge you rent while the premises are vacant.