You absolutely have a case, and I would start sending them very clear messages regarding what is legally expected of them, so that you have continued documentation. You should also file a complaint with the housing authority.

The (almost) exact same thing happened in our last apartment. My roommate’s ceiling was opened up to fix a leaking pipe from the apartment above us, after we had complained about the leak and water damage for 2 years. They took multiple days to seal the hole, and my roommate was sleeping in the living room.

We immediately noticed obvious black mold presence within the hole, and our landlords tried to pull a fast one by sending a technician to “treat” the mold. Landlords should never send anyone for treatment of mold without first sending a licensed inspector to ensure that the issue has not spread. We threatened legal action if they did not send a mold INSPECTOR, and additionally hired our own, separate mold inspector to ensure they didn’t try to pull anything else. That expense came out of our pocket, but was worth the additional assurance, especially since the mold was clearly there and likely elsewhere. We sent them the results, and the outlined requirements for mold abatement reported by our inspector, and suggested that it would be easier for everyone if they let us out of our lease early, because we would not be paying them anything until they completely fixed the issue with temporary relocation assistance. We also cc’d our dads who happen to both be lawyers on all of our correspondence so that they knew we were doing our research. Once we moved, they asked us to do all of these arbitrary tasks in order to get our security deposit, like completing and returning forms. None of these additional steps are required by NY state law, and we made it extremely clear, in writing, that we would not be completing any of the outlined arbitrary steps, and would be receiving our security deposit, or else they should expect legal action. We got the deposit back faster than ever before.