What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Alaska
We have rented 1st floor of a house since last Oct. as a month-to-month contract.The landlord lives upstairs.
In the mid of May, the boiler broke and we lost the entire heat of the house, but the landlord didn't do anything for a week or so. So we called her and asked to do something with the heating system because it's required to do so as a landlord by law( and it was cold!). She said that because she works in daytime, she doesn't need any heat in the house and she turns off the heating system in June every year anyway and she has had no complaints from renters before.However, she brought us a one-room-size electric heater after that.
A few days later(5/31), she brought a letter which says that she is raising the rent due to the increase of oil prices from 7/1, and everytime one of us saw her, she told us that she was going to buy a new boiler very soon, so we assumed that she was going to provide a new heating system by oil from 7/1, but she didn't. We still have the little heater only.
So, we paid only for the amount of rent without the raise, but she still expects us to pay the raised part of the rent. We wrote her a letter and gave her a Notice To Landlord Of Need For Repairs And Deduction From Rent to repair the heating system and terminate the existing rodents problems including the access repairs( this has been a problem since we moved in but she didn't do anything but gave us 4 mice traps since the rental started) by 7/31.
In return, she called a pest control and they left only 2 mice traps although mice come into all over the kitchen and we left their droppings as they are so that pest control people can see the route.
After that, she handed us a letter which says that she is going to get a new heating system installed by 7/31, and now we owe her 5% interest with the raised part of the rent and if we don't pay by 7/23, she's going to breach the rental contract.
We'd like to pay the raised rent if she really provide us the heat and mice access repair, but at this point we can't believe her until it happens.
What kind of options do we have? Can she charge us the 5% of interest as the late fee leagally? Please help us!
We have rented 1st floor of a house since last Oct. as a month-to-month contract.The landlord lives upstairs.
In the mid of May, the boiler broke and we lost the entire heat of the house, but the landlord didn't do anything for a week or so. So we called her and asked to do something with the heating system because it's required to do so as a landlord by law( and it was cold!). She said that because she works in daytime, she doesn't need any heat in the house and she turns off the heating system in June every year anyway and she has had no complaints from renters before.However, she brought us a one-room-size electric heater after that.
A few days later(5/31), she brought a letter which says that she is raising the rent due to the increase of oil prices from 7/1, and everytime one of us saw her, she told us that she was going to buy a new boiler very soon, so we assumed that she was going to provide a new heating system by oil from 7/1, but she didn't. We still have the little heater only.
So, we paid only for the amount of rent without the raise, but she still expects us to pay the raised part of the rent. We wrote her a letter and gave her a Notice To Landlord Of Need For Repairs And Deduction From Rent to repair the heating system and terminate the existing rodents problems including the access repairs( this has been a problem since we moved in but she didn't do anything but gave us 4 mice traps since the rental started) by 7/31.
In return, she called a pest control and they left only 2 mice traps although mice come into all over the kitchen and we left their droppings as they are so that pest control people can see the route.
After that, she handed us a letter which says that she is going to get a new heating system installed by 7/31, and now we owe her 5% interest with the raised part of the rent and if we don't pay by 7/23, she's going to breach the rental contract.
We'd like to pay the raised rent if she really provide us the heat and mice access repair, but at this point we can't believe her until it happens.
What kind of options do we have? Can she charge us the 5% of interest as the late fee leagally? Please help us!