Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Iowa

HELP. We are desperate to move out of the townhouse we are renting. Is our lease even valid? Can we legitimately break the lease in our situation, if we are still in one?

Sorry this is so long.

Here is the situation...

1. I signed a lease in August 2013. I also signed my girlfriend's name (now wife) on the lease because she was out of state and didn't move for three more months. She believes this doesn't make her legitimately on the lease because she didn't sign it.

2. The landlord acknowledged the hot water needed to be replaced. The gas company refused to light it and labeled it a hazard. The landlord managed to get it lit but it leaked water, at my expense until he finally replaced it 2.5 months later after numerous times calling.

3. The landlord, after repeated attempts to get a copy of the lease failed to do so in a timely manner (5 months later). It wasn't until the basement backed up with raw sewage, three times, that he produced the lease that states I was responsible for clean up. This was five months later. This lease is not the original copy either because he had me initial the pages and this copy is not initialed.

4. For nine going on ten months we have battled to get our noisy neighbor's son to stop blaring his loud music and/or screaming/roughhousing outside which disrupts my sleep(I work third shift). We have called the landlord numerous times, the police, however the problem is only fixed for a couple of weeks then goes back to loud music and/or screaming right outside the front of the townhouses.

4. We also have had to call the police and landlord because the neighbor had a knife threatening a group of her son's friends.

Last week I just caught the neighbor's son picking up our trash can getting ready to throw it but I caught him before he actually did it.

5. We suspect the other neighbor is a drug dealer because he has a constant flow of traffic through for 3-5 minutes of a time. His "friends" have said intimating things when outside pertaining to stealing cars and beating people up. He also blares his bass music from his car and we have asked him to turn it down three times and talked to the landlord about it.

6. We do not feel safe in our home and now fear retaliation from our neighbors if we continue to call the police every issue.

I am ready to walk away no matter what. I cannot handle anymore of his incompetence. I haven't slept well for almost 10 months because I'm constantly being woken up. I understand some loud noise once in awhile but is it almost every single day.

I also have kept a log of dates, times, of several but not all incidences. I took video of the sewage issues, the house before move in, the date of the hot water heater replacement. I just started taking video of the noise and roughhousing. I also kept the tag from the gas company labeling the hot water heater a hazard which states the date verses the date that he actually replaced it.

Thank you for any advice you can give. I appreciate it!!

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