Advice on breaking lease due to black mold and landlord negligence

Location: Atlanta, Georgia
My partner and I are renting a home in Atlanta, Georgia from a renewal company and we’ve run into a lot of issues.

When we moved in we had an infestation of spiders, beetles, ants, and other bugs, that wasn’t dealt with for weeks. We had no hot water, as we needed a brand new water heater. Our dishwasher wasn’t working. Lights were out. Our garage door didn’t work. And that was just the start.

Over the course of months, after work order after work order, we are now facing our biggest issue in the form of unaddressed black mold. Starting under our sink, going from cabinet to cabinet, from drawer to drawer.

We saw it growing and we immediately put in a work order. After 3 days or so, they sent a technician to remove it. But all they did was wipe it away. From then, it obviously started growing back. And worse than that, it is in our ventilation. We see black mold stains near our vents.

We put it work orders, just for them to send technician after technician, but they essentially just say this is out of their pay grade, or that they don’t know how to deal with it.

Furthermore, when it comes to work orders, they don’t ever tell us what time they will arrive, just a date and sometimes not even that. So we request time off work, just for them to not show up that day, show up on another day and then they will threaten to charge us for a missed work order. The lease agreement we have is full of contradictions. And at this point it is becoming unlivable for me and my partner. Everyone online says nothing but horrible things about this company.

We want to get out of our lease. We want to be in an apartment or just somewhere else, but we can’t break our lease without penalty. Which is why we are consulting legal advice. Is there any way legally we can get out of our lease? We have done some personal research and have found Georgia House Bill 404 Safe Home Act, which does protect us, but how do we use that in our favor? Where can we go to possibly pursue legal action? What are our next steps?

Truthfully thank you so much for any help you can give! If there are any questions I am happy to answer.