Do I Have To Pay?

[justalayman]

For what it's worth...

"Humongous" (1400 BTU) window air conditioner - running 24/7 - 16 centers per kWh - $171 per month.

Still less than half the cost of that 2.5 ton (3000 BTU) central unit at $400+ per month.

It's a misnomer that window units are energy eaters (many are energy efficient). And, at any rate, this issue of providing a window unit is a temporary solution until the parts for the central unit can be received.

And as for 90 degree weather causing SIDs in an infant; one wonders how ANY child in the deep south (where I live) survived when born any time during the months of mid May to mid September prior to central air conditioning.

Gail

no matter how many times you post that it is not an equal comparison. The humongous (actually not since you can our purchase a 24,000 btu/h window unit) simply cannot cool as much as a 2.5 ton 30 thousand , not 3 thousand btu/h) unit. Window unit will have to run twice as long to produce the same cooling. That means if the window unit has to run 12 hours every day to cool the home the central air unit will only have to run less than 6 hours to provide the same amount of cooling plus the central unit will do a better job of distributing that cooling throughout the entire home. You would have to add multiple fans to provide the same effect with the window unit.

 

[cbg]

If high temperatures without air conditioning is a health hazard, how do we explain all the folks who survived living in Florida and Louisiana before air conditioning was invented? Surely some of them were, and had, newborns at one time.

(and while overheating due to excessive clothing and bedding *may* be a factor in SIDS, there are actually more SIDS deaths during the cold seasons)

 

[quincy]

If high temperatures without air conditioning is a health hazard, how do we explain all the folks who survived living in Florida and Louisiana before air conditioning was invented? Surely some of them were, and had, newborns at one time.

(and while overheating due to excessive clothing and bedding *may* be a factor in SIDS, there are actually more SIDS deaths during the cold seasons)

It is not always a matter of no air conditioning being a health hazard, although in the case I cited earlier the trial judge determined that the air conditioning was a matter of habitability and not an amenity (and rent abatement for the days tenants were without air conditioning was therefore justified).

What also can be considered by a court is whether the lease contract provides for air conditioning and the amount of rent charged is higher because of it. When air conditioning is provided for in the lease, the lack of air conditioning can be seen as a breach of contract terms.

 

[cbg]

That is, however, a separate issue.

Although the OP is claiming (incorrectly) that the lack of air conditioning is a health hazard, he wants to refuse the temporary measure offered by the landlord and sue, instead. It does not sound as if the landlord is indifferent to the problem and is willing to work with the OP to resolve it. The OP, on the other hand, wants it his way or the highway.

Which sounds to me as if he's really more interesting in suing than he is in fixing the problem.

 

[quincy]

That is, however, a separate issue.

Although the OP is claiming (incorrectly) that the lack of air conditioning is a health hazard, he wants to refuse the temporary measure offered by the landlord and sue, instead. It does not sound as if the landlord is indifferent to the problem and is willing to work with the OP to resolve it. The OP, on the other hand, wants it his way or the highway.

Which sounds to me as if he's really more interesting in suing than he is in fixing the problem.

Oh. I agree. And I do not see a lawsuit here at all for NW22. The landlord has come up with a temporary (and reasonable) solution to the problem.

I was just commenting on the fact that, at least in New Jersey, the lack of air conditioning can be seen both as a habitability issue and as a breach of contract issue, given the right facts. In an area that has several 90 degree days in a row, for example, a third floor apartment with no cross breeze can become dangerously hot and a health hazard, not unlike a car in the sun.

 

[cbg]

Lived across the river in Philadelphia for eleven years. I don't question that it can be uncomfortably hot. I do question health hazard, and I am not a little disgusted by the fact that the OP appears to be more concerned with money than anything else.

 

[Proserpina]

Lived across the river in Philadelphia for eleven years. I don't question that it can be uncomfortably hot. I do question health hazard, and I am not a little disgusted by the fact that the OP appears to be more concerned with money than anything else.

There's a reason why we won't move back to PA just yet ...

 

[quincy]

Lived across the river in Philadelphia for eleven years. I don't question that it can be uncomfortably hot. I do question health hazard, and I am not a little disgusted by the fact that the OP appears to be more concerned with money than anything else.

I know several people in New Jersey who are not suffering all that much from a lack of air conditioning right now, even though it was in the 90s briefly. But I agree that, if NW22 is thinking about his soon-to-be-born baby and very pregnant wife, he should accept the window unit offered by the landlord and use that until central air is available again. The landlord knows of the air conditioning problem and seems to be doing what he can to fix it.

If the air conditioning is not fixed in a reasonable amount of time, however, he can then go to one of the landlord/tenant legal aid clinics to explore his options. But, as FarmerJ says, NW22 should have written evidence that he has contacted the landlord about the repair to the air conditioning (with "written" being a regular letter sent certified mail, return receipt requested).

 

[cbg]

(should also mention that for just under two of those years I was living in a third floor walk up)