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Need a bit of help here. My lease is up on a "luxary" condo, brand new development. Renewal is not an option. My rent is $ 2150/month... and I am not getting what I paid for. What are my legal recourses?
This condo has had several issues. Most are small, but never taken care of since we moved in a year ago.
Non working light switches
Missing/poor weather striping
Consistant entry by contractors to do repair work for construction violations
The list goes on for about dozen or so, but you get the idea.
But the big one is the Central Air. It didnt work when we moved in last summer for 2 weeks. Once the end of March this year came and we had some warm New England days, we contacted the Landlord about the 2 central air units not outputting anything... not even air. A repair man came by a month later ( late april ) and could only fix one. A month goes by and no repairs are done... Yes I was hounding them..
Then all of the sudden they decide to start selling all the units at a discounted price. So they hired a load of contractors to finish the other 20 or so units on the development... including Central Air contactors. They came and went.... and never repaired mine. Finally they came out about 4 weeks ago. The repair man said the unit was broken with a leak and he could only temp fix it...Till today, they have not taken care of it.
Not I am not the nit picky type... but at $ 2150 a month, this should of been taken care of day one. All contact of the situation is documented via email.
I need to approach my landlord in a professional manner about this. Aside this being a customer service issue, I really have no ammo to use against him as I am not familair with the laws regarding a situation like this. I am sure I could take this to small claims and win something back, but I want to get this settled now.
Any suggestions about how to deal with this and what I should ask for as compensation?
Check with the laws of your state. Some allow for withholding of rent until items are repaired. My guess is if the landlord's money is at stake they'll be a lot quicker to fix it.
As far as compensation, you're not owed anything unless the landlord is in violation of your lease. In New England, central a/a is a luxury amenity as you noted, not a requirement. So the landlord isn't in violation of any laws, just poor customer service.
Honestly, these issues sound par for the course for new construction. There are a lot of growing pains that one needs to accomodate in these situations and the resident needs to understand that and be flexible.
Also, it's up to you to be your own advocate in service request situations. I know you said your requests are well documented by emails, but just how much did you follow up on this? Did you send any certified letters? Did you contact the management weekly for status updates? It's important to be a thorn in their sides and let them know you're not happy if you want results. Now if you did all these things and they still didn't do anything, then that further illustrates that they're lacking in customer service!
No... last summer it didnt work for 1st 2 weeks, then repaired quickly.
Now after the winter and we put it on in late March 2009 for the first time... then issues started. Now July 7.... still no AC. Been complaining weekly since late March 2009.
In NC you can't withhold rent. You can only do "constructive eviction" i.e move out yourself. Plus, if the lease is up with no possiblity of renewal what do you really want??? Just find another place.
I don't mean to sound snarky, but legally speaking, you're paying for what you're entitled to in your lease agreement. So if a/c wasn't in your lease, than you weren't "paying for it." Amenities are never guaranteed. I know what you mean, you leased this place thinking it would have a/c. But in the eyes of the law, you got what you paid for and are due no excess compensation.
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