We have been on to the landord to do our plumbing for 6n months as we cannot use the bath or shower and now the toilet is leaking are we allowed to with hold the rent

You have to tell the landlord first that you are withholding the rent to repair something that is necessary for the house/apartment/whatever to be livable legally, but yes.

To ensure that you won't be evicted for non payment of rent you need to contact the Clerk of Court at the courthouse nearest to you. Ask them if it is permissible for you to pay your rental money into the Court Registry until repairs are made on your rental apt. If they are able to do this, then you must go in person and fill out paperwork that they will have for you there at the Clerk's office and pay your rent into the Court Registry. This will prevent the landlord from evicting you as you have essentially paid the rent to the Court Clerk and if the landlord tries to evict you for nonpayment of rent, the Clerk will not allow the eviction complaint to be filed as they check out the name and address in their system and will find that you have paid the rent to the Court Reigstry. Also, depending on how serious this is, you may wish to contact the local Health Dept or Building Dept and ask them if they can help you on this as it may be a sanitary issue that they would have jurisdiction over and force/fine the landlord into fixing the problem.

Actually, this is one of those things that varies greatly from lease to lease, and from state to state.

Do you have a written lease, and if so what does it state? If not, or if your lease doesn't address repairs, check the sticky at the top of the forum for a link to your state's landlord/tenant property code. Even if you lease does address repairs check your state laws to make sure your lease is in compliance with them.

From your description, you would definitely have an excellent case to take the LL to small claims court and get a judge to rule that you be let out of the lease. And probably monetary damages on top of it.

But if you just withhold rent incorrectly then it opens you up to the landlord having grounds to come after you. Document, document, document. Get free estimates from plumbers, save copies of written communication you send the landlord, take pictures if there are conditions that are photographable.

Rockinmommy is correct, in most places you can withhold rent in a situation like this, IF you do it right. And that means setting up an account to pay rent into until repairs are done, or paid off.

You have many options, but you really need to discuss this with your local housing agency to make sure you do it right. You could get estimates fort the repairs and present them to your landlord. If he refuses to order the work, you may be able to have it down yourself and then withhold rent until its paid for, or put the rent into an escrow account until you have enough to pay the repair. Or you can get out of your lease since you have an uninhabitable condition. Plus other possibilities.