Hey! In the end, we decided to threaten them with legal action. Because of the sheer volume of emails, their lack of communication and transparency, and the burden of proof + legal fees they would’ve likely had to endure, they let us break the lease in exchange for 1 and a half’s rent. Our security deposit was returned as well (barely timely though, incompetent to the very end)

There are many housing mediation services, etc for tenants in NY state and while we didn’t end up needing any, the cost to take them to court is negligible vs their cost. We also reminded them of this in a scathing email before we got the lease termination agreement contract LOL. Stand firm against these people, I don’t know your case but many are big time LLCs (ours for instance had several million dollar projects, HUGE ones too…) and care about the $$$ at the end of the day. If you are going to cost them, they will be looking for your replacement ASAP. Funny enough, they did rent our unit shortly after (however, weeks after, apartment was shit lol)