After numerous times of asking my apartment manager to fix several problems in my apartment, I am being threatened with being taken to court for unpaid late fees from last month. I am wits end about these problems by this point.

• Something is leaking water into my living room. A corner is constantly wet and my place has smelled like mildew for over a month now.

• One outlet in the living room has never worked in the 19 months I've been here. Another one started working intermittently in June. If it gets jostled slightly, the lights in the kitchen go out. It has also sparked at me and my son one more than one occasion.

• The cold water in the shower will go out unpredictably from time to time and burn whoever is taking a shower. It has happened to both me and my son.

There are other minor problems, such as a screen that keeps falling out of my bedroom window, but those are the major ones. I was out of work for a few weeks last month and I did pay the rent late, but it was paid. I refused to pay the late fees because the office never responded to my letters or phone calls about the repairs that needed to be done. I told them that it was ridiculous that they refused to return phone calls or respond to my letters but now that they wanted late fees they're all too ready to talk to me.

Back in May my toilet stopped working for 4 days. I literally was pouring buckets of water into the bowl to flush it. I was calling twice a day until it culminated in me literally yelling, which I never do, to get through to them.

I almost feel that going to court at this point and telling a judge about the problems that aren't being addressed, one of which is fire hazard. Am I wrong in this or is there another direction I should be taking in this case.