how much heat are landlords supposed to provide their tenants during the winter months? (Boston: apartment)

[w55w]

over here I can turn the dial all the way up to 90 degrees but the actual temperature inside the apartment never goes above 70 degrees.

my neighbor says that his problem with the heater in his apartment is a bit different. either it works but the temperature is ridiculously high, or it doesn't work at all. it's like an on/off thing that cannot be adjusted.

then last month I talked to this other neighbor who says that he has to use those portable heater things they sell at walmart for $50 because the heater in his apartment never works.

just wondering if it's possible to go to the city hall and ask them to send an inspector to take a look at this apartment building or if it boils down to 'if you don't like it move to another apartment'

[11thavefreakout]

According to the Boston inspectional services department website...

"Chapter II of the MA State Sanitary Code (105 CMR 4 10), often referred to as the "housing code," requires that residential property owners provide functioning heating systems that are capable of heating habitable spaces to minimum temperatures of 68° daytime (7AM-11PM) or 64° nighttime (11:01PM-6:59AM)."

Residential Winter Heating | City of Boston

[bbekity]

Have you personally spoken to the owner about this? Have they attempted to fix it or ignore your request? It's is much better for you legally if you tried to reach out to your landlord with no avail than going straight to the Housing Authority in your town. Otherwise, call you town's house inspector and make an appointment for him to come over. He will write a report and send a copy to your owner who then has two weeks I believe to answer or fix it and if he does neither, he will get a summons to court. My landlady completely ignored our inspector's request and had a warrant out for her arrest unless she fixed it. She never did, sold the place and made restitution without fixing the problem.

[tikaram]

Some of the symptoms you describe are indication of an older heating system. landlord doesn't have to update the system if it works (even if not perfectly).
We had same issue with practically non-adjustable heat in the apartment. You cold turn the dial all you want, but it would either heat up like crazy (and take A LOT of time), and then we would turn it off completely. No other way to adjust.
Portable heaters are not that bad at all. I love them if I need to heat up just one room, rather than the whole house. If your heating bill is separate (not included in the rent), it's also cheaper to use space heaters, especially if you have oil heat.
Other than that, talk to the landlord. Maybe he has a plan in mind to change the system, but is waiting a few months before starting the project. Maybe not, but you'd never know unless you ask

[knitgirl]

The heating system in older buildings is sometimes not done correctly. I own a 3 flat that is about 125 yrs old. We have a hot water boiler system. I live in the smallest apartment. I have always liked it pretty cold and sometimes it would get really warm in my place. I tried a programmable thermostat, it did nothing. Sometimes I would turn off the heat in my unit and it would still be warm. I had found out a couple of years ago that the plumbing for the heating system ran through my kitchen on it's way upstairs. The boiler guy showed me a valve I could turn off to keep that water out (they have more lines than just that 1 taking the heat up there). This summer a new tenant moved in to an apartment that was kept pretty cool in previous winters. Once the heat went on it was super hot in my place and the upstairs tenants complained as well. The new tenant lives in the back, and doesn't get any solar gain in the winter from the afternoon sun. He thought setting the thermostat to 75 was perfectly normal. The upstairs tenants and I were getting temperatures close to 80 in our apts. I called in the boiler guy. After about an hour of studying the system and turning on and off the various thermostats, it turns out that the plumbing for the heat was even less separate than I thought and his thermostat controls the bulk of the building. I've asked him to keep his thermostat no higher than 72 and I've lent him a small electric space heater. I told him to install the window film and I would pay for it, but he hadn't taken me up on that.

Long story to say that sometimes these systems are much less controllable than we'd like. I would ask the landlord to pay for window film and possibly a small space heater. Last winter I used one under my desk and it was perfect. If I could afford to replumb it, I would, but it would be over $5,000 which I just don't have.

[kmann-sherborn]

If you're going to request that something be fixed be sure to do it in writing & send it via certified mail or the like so if you need to go back & prove that you communicated this to your landlord you can do so.