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For the last five weeks now, I've been having problems with the central air conditioning unit in my apartment. It would either work or not work at all. If the temp was less than 85 outside and the humidity was low, the AC unit would work just fine. Otherwise, it would not work if it was hot and humid. We live on the third floor and it gets hot fast up here. We have put in a number of maintenance calls about this and each time the maintenance man would come out, he would claim that he did some things and that the AC was fixed. Shortly after he would leave, the AC would act up again. Eventually, they determined that our AC unit needed to be replaced. So on Monday, they come to take out the old AC unit and put the new one in. the new AC unit came with no refridgerant loaded in the compressor which means that it does not work at all. Eventually another maintenance man came and determined that the AC was indeed not working. The next day, the HVAC technician from the company they purchased the AC unit from came out to check on the AC unit and he said that the refridgerant was indeed not put into the compressor and that there was nothing they could do. Basically we have a damaged AC unit. My maintenance man did tell me that it could take another three to six months before a new one would come. So we got on the phone and called the office about all of this and they then called the manufacturer who is claiming that they could get an AC unit shipped out to us around the third of August. That's more than two weeks away and it's supposed to be well into the 90's for the next several days. We think that what the apartment complex landlord is doing is unacceptable and that we demanded that we get some compensation for the fact that our AC had not been working for so many weeks and that we could be out for at least 2 and a half more weeks or longer. She said she would contact her boss and get back to us.
So then yesterday she did indeed contact us and she told us that she talked to her boss who then talked to his or her boss and has determined that we are not happy living where we are and believes we should move out and that we wouldn't have to pay to break our lease. We got really angry when they said this. We are generally happy living here, but things are not working that need to be working such as the air conditioning. We pay well over $700 a month in rent and the electric bill gets to around $300 a month during the summer. But they have decided to make this decision based on past issues we've had to call about. There were other things we needed to have fixed such as having our kitchen faucet replaced because it had some hazards on it that could cause serious injury, our apartment has a fireplace and we use it a lot during the colder months and what happened was that a lot of smoke started coming into the apartment and black smoke stains were visible on anything in the apartment and both of those things took a while to get fixed and we had to get after the office staff about this a few times. Also, we wanted the apartment repainted because of all the smoke damage that was caused by the smoke not being able to escape out of the chimney and that too we had to tell them about a few times as well. And they want us out because of all this stuff. I don't think it's right and we pay so much in rent that we expect the stuff to work and we expect the things to be done in a timely matter as well.
The apartment complex we live in is over 30 years old and has not received any major renovations. Much of the stuff such as the furnaces, electrical, phone wires, cable and some appliances are original to the complex from when they built it. And the complex itself is looking bad in a lot of spots and nothing is being done to fix the problem.
At this point, we are thinking of taking legal action on the matters we are going through. What do you think we should do? We like living here when things work the way we want them to and we don't have problems with neighbors either.
The one maintenance man who did determine that our AC was not working after the new unit was installed told us that we are their #1 priority for getting the AC working, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Also when the staff says they will call us back, they often don't and then we have to call to find out what's going on. The office staff does not communicate with each other very well either. But we shouldn't have to move. I just hate the fact that they say we are their priority, yet they don't do anything about it.
If you have not already done this, send a demand letter to the the management (or whom ever is listed in yuor lease as the responsible party) via certified mail with return receipt requested. Thats step 1, once that is completed, let us know what they said and we can go on to step 2.
what we plan to do is contact some local agencies around here and say what they said. If they say we should take legal action, then we will most likely do that.
The apartment complex we live in is over 30 years old and has not received any major renovations. Much of the stuff such as the furnaces, electrical, phone wires, cable and some appliances are original to the complex from when they built it. And the complex itself is looking bad in a lot of spots and nothing is being done to fix the problem.
How long have you been there?
Were these condition issues not in evidence then?
How high is your ($700?) rent relative to the area?
Did you have other options for where to live?
Does the lease describe the air conditioning as a feature?
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Eventually, they determined that our AC unit needed to be replaced.
My maintenance man did tell me that it could take another three to six months before a new one would come.
Is the AC equipment as old as the building?
If so... it's no wonder the electric bills were so high.
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At this point, we are thinking of taking legal action on the matters we are going through.
What do you think we should do?
It's all about documentation and your willingness to press the matter.
Old AC equipment breaks.
Getting things up and running again in the middle of hot summer isn't always so easy.
You have a petty cheap landlord complicating things.
To be clear: you are WELL within your rights to press and very likely to eventually get a
working AC... but in the meantime you're going to be a very sweaty and very unhappy tenant.
I really don't think this situation developing is a big surprise for you.
Cutting to the chase:
Have you asked (in writing) for window units to get through the season with?
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So then yesterday she did indeed contact us and she told us that she talked to her boss who then talked to his or her boss and has determined that we are not happy living where we are and believes we should move out and that we wouldn't have to pay to break our lease.
This "happy clause" is a popular approach in some LL'ing corners.
It's *supposed* to be used when a tenant has insubstantial complaints.
How long have you been there? We've been here since April of 2011.
Were these condition issues not in evidence then? The faucet in our apartment was banged up and had chipped up spots that could severally injure someone if the faucet was touched in those areas. It took a bit of nagging about it before they replaced the faucet. The fireplace issued occured last winter and we were unable to use the fireplace for a couple of weeks. They did fix the issue at some point, but failed to mention this to us for like a week and a half.
How high is your ($700?) rent relative to the area? What do you mean?
Did you have other options for where to live? If we had to move, it would cost us a lot of $ just to move and we don't have that kind of money.
Does the lease describe the air conditioning as a feature? It is listed as an ammenity. It is not considered to be an emergency maintenance request, but no heat is considered an emergency.
Is the AC equipment as old as the building?If so... it's no wonder the electric bills were so high: The unit we were having problems was indeed original to the building. The new unit they put in Monday did not come loaded with refridgerant and was considered damaged. The maintenance man who installed the new AC unit said that to get a new one could take three to six months. The apartment complex manager did contact the manufacturer of the unit who is claiming that the earliest that they can get a new AC unit sent to us would be August 3rd. We have many more 90 degree plus temps coming so it's going to be unbearable.
You have a petty cheap landlord complicating things. - Yes we do. They won't even buy a window or portable air conditioner to let us use until the new AC unit comes in and gets installed.
Cutting to the chase: Have you asked (in writing) for window units to get through the season with? We haven't asked in writing. We did ask the office staff and they said that they didn't have any, but they could provide us with fans to use which doesn't help the situation any.
With the amount of rent we pay, we expect things to work and the condition of the complex should be a lot better than what it's in as well as the fact that all electrical and phone wiring should be upgraded. If something isn't working, then we want the rent to be prorated. And because we said we wanted the rent to be prorated, they thought it would be best that we leave their complex.
More often, a tenant will write saying they are tired of on going repairs, want to move and the management will not let them.
A few times, over the last 30 years, I have said exactly the same thing to a resident... something like this doesn't seem to be working and you might be happier moving... almost every time, it did not have the intended affect... residents got mad instead of feeling relieved they were not being held hostage.
As to the problem at hand... my first response would be to check the habitability requirements applicable to apartments in your area to see if the A/C would warrant regulatory intervention.
Second, if A/C is included in your lease... the landlord would seem to have a duty to repair in a reasonable time... sounds like that time frame has just about come and gone.
On a side note... did have a building with A/C and one tenant was always having problems on hot humid days... the problem turned out to be icing that was the result of the thermostat being set to the coldest temp... the unit simply could not cool to 60 degrees under humid conditions and in trying, it would freeze the coils and loose all cooling.
Not saying this is your problem... just saying sometimes the difference between a bad situation and normal can be traced to expectations.
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