Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

No the list of things that make a unit uninhabitable is pretty limited and only contains pretty serious defects, like no running water. The simple way to think about it if you don't want to look up the whole list is would the building department condemn the building or unit due to the defect. If not, forget about getting out of your lease. You may be able to obtain relief from the condition itself via the building department issuing a building code correction order, but that's about the most you can hope for.