[MA] Last Months Rent - Early Termination and “broker commission” Tenant

Location: Massachusetts Hello, recently had a nightmare where I moved in somewhere and had to leave within a few days due to their being hazardous toxic lead dust contamination all over the apartment. They renovated a prehistoric house without doing any prior testing so we hired a licensed state inspector, who told us not to use windows or fans in the house, and to avoid using the doors (bedroom door and main hallway) because of the elevated results. Fast forward we were sent a mutual termination agreement, we emptied the apartment and returned they keys. We are due out last months rent that we paid. We feel we are due a full refund since we paid for the inspection and had to throw out multiple items. Anyway, we haven’t gotten a countersigned agreement or check for last month rent yet (it’s been two weeks). When looking at old lease and receipts; the realtor sent me a payment on their portal for "last month rent" and to hold the apartment, but the payment request and receipt say broker lease commission. Then on the lease it mentions the payment to the realtor portal and that the landlord will apply it to last month rent? We are increasingly frustrated with them and about $8,700 in the hole from paying them first and last month, the inspection fee, for new items we discarded, and for having to pay rent twice in order to move out to somewhere safer within a month span. Do we have a case here for suing them or should we just push for our last month rent back at the very least since they are ghosting us now? Who is even responsible for paying us since they messily handled the last month rent documents?

Originally asked on Reddit.

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