Please help! My daughter & her family have moved into an apartment that, in my estimation, is unfit for habitation at this time. The landlord has had two months from the date that he and my son-in-law reached an agreement to take occupancy, to fix, repair, and rehab the basement, and as of the agreed-upon move-in date which was July 1, 2009, the apartment is still not ready. There are exposed wires and even an exposed outlet box just hanging from whatever the electrical apparatus that an outlet box is connected to is called. An outlet belongs inside a wall, correct? This is just to name a few of the obvious issues. I don't even want to think about when it rains.
My questions are as follows: What are their rights under PA (Montgomery County) real estate law when, 1) the apartment was not ready as agreed upon between both parties (they had to ask their then-current landlord for an extra 5 days); 2) they have only maintained occupancy for two days due to the apartment not being ready and do not want to live there any longer; 3) can this basement in a single-family dwelling even be certified for apartment occupancy; 4) the lease is signed but has no start or end date; and, 5) the rent is paid up until September 2009.
Any help we can get will be extremely appreciated.

Thanks,
ConcernedMom631

They need to call the building codes inspector in their town.

Correct, if the inspector says the place is uninhabitable, they can break the lease.

However, there is another factor here. It sounds like this landlord was trying to put in an accessory apartment, that, very likely is not legal. So, if your daughter wants out, she can tell the landlord, that she wants out and that she wants the immediate return of what she has paid. Otherwise she will go go the local building inspector to have the apartment declared unfit.

If the landlord has an illegal apartment, he's not going to let her go to the inspector.