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My latest problem in this place is that we haven't had heat or hot water for ten days. The landlords claim they tried to do things asap when the boilerbroke, but I have a hard time believing that it should take ten days. They claim we will have heat and hot water by tomorrow evening but at this point I don't believe that either. There are so many problems with this place we are just trying to get out of the lease, but in the meantime does anywone know what our remedies are? I can't seem to find good anserrs online. I've called 311 but that hasn't helped. Can we withhold or deduct rent for the days without heat and hot water? Or can we use this as a basis to get out of the lease?
My latest problem in this place is that we haven't had heat or hot water for ten days. The landlords claim they tried to do things asap when the boilerbroke, but I have a hard time believing that it should take ten days. They claim we will have heat and hot water by tomorrow evening but at this point I don't believe that either. There are so many problems with this place we are just trying to get out of the lease, but in the meantime does anywone know what our remedies are? I can't seem to find good anserrs online. I've called 311 but that hasn't helped. Can we withhold or deduct rent for the days without heat and hot water? Or can we use this as a basis to get out of the lease?
File for a rent abatement with DHCR, or better yet, file in housing court.
Withholding rent can backfire on you.
311 does help - it creates a paper trail, which you need for DHCR and/or housing court actions.
If you are not informed about these things, call Met Council on Housing.
File for a rent abatement with DHCR, or better yet, file in housing court.
Withholding rent can backfire on you.
311 does help - it creates a paper trail, which you need for DHCR and/or housing court actions.
If you are not informed about these things, call Met Council on Housing.
Many tenants I know along with myself got a lot of our issues address when we threatened to withhold rent. When you are not given necessities such as heat and hot water you have every right to withhold rent. Screw them! Its 30 degrees outside right now and I have no HEAT or HOT WATER!!??
I would call up the landlord and tell them that you are going to file a complaint with DHCR and will take them to court. I would then tell them that you are not going to pay them a cent and will deduct a certain amount from the rent for no heat and hot water. I would start looking for a new apartment and when you leave DO NOT PAY THE LAST MONTHS rent. Use the security deposit for the last month and don't use them as a reference.
Sorry you didn't provide more information, because naturally boilers can break, and it's hard to know what's happening. It would have helped if you would have told us what 311 said, or what the LL has said besides that one promise, or if you have a super.
This is the one thing that 311 is supposed to be good at. Meanwhile, see if the workers are there tomorrow, and ask them what the prognosis is. I don't think it's a basis of getting out of a lease at this point.
My mom owns property and when the boiler at one of her buildings broke, it took one day to fix. She paid a lot for it and made quite a number of phone calls but she got it done in one day. Same thing happened where I live and mgmt had it fixed over night. Both times, there was hot water just no heat. I'm not saying this to rub it in. My point is, it can be done and 10 days seems an awfully long time to get a boiler replaced/fixed. I would keep calling 311 although they don't seem to be responding. It's terrible that you have no heat AND no hot water. That's inhumane.
Boilers do break and they do need time to repair, but as others have said, 10 days unreasonable.
Look up "breach of warranty of habitability" because that's the territory that your landlord is entering by delaying heat and hot water for so long.
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this is terrible to hear.
