I do not know how this all works but you can certaibly delay signing the lease by starting some sort of formal complaint procedure. Likely, there is a citizen's action group of some sort that can help you out and give you information. The key is generally that you need to put the $ that you would be paying for rent in some account until the dispute is resolved. I do not know this area of the law but generally you can delay things while pursuing your legal options. I would look for a citizen action group to help yourself out.